Charles Russ Richards Memorial Award

In 1938, Pi Tau Sigma (National Mechanical Engineering Honor Society) arranged with ASME for the joint award of the Pi Tau Sigma Gold Medal. This medal is awarded for outstanding achievement in mechanical engineering to an engineer within ten years after graduation from the regular engineering course of a recognized college or university.

In 1944, the Charles Russ Richards Award was similarly established as a joint award of Pi Tau Sigma to recognize outstanding achievement in mechanical engineering for twenty years or more following graduation.

In 1973, Pi Tau Sigma and ASME entered into a new agreement which continued the existing awards and added the Gustus L. Larson Award to honor engineering graduates for outstanding achievement in mechanical engineering between ten and twenty years after graduation. Funding was provided from the ASME Ward S. and Editha Jacobs Fund.

The qualifications for the recipients of each of the three awards are identical except for the period of recognized achievements. In each case the recipient shall have received a baccalaureate degree from a regular engineering program of a recognized college or university and shall have attained outstanding achievement within the period stated for each award. Achievement shall be all or in part in any field, including industrial, educational, political, research, civic and artistic. The candidate'/s achievements will be examined for an application of basic engineering methods or principles.

The three awards are administered by a Joint Board of Award appointed by Pi Tau Sigma and ASME. The Chair is a Pi Tau Sigma appointee. The Board of Award provides forms and invites ASME Sections and other units to nominate for the awards. The Board of Award submits the names and records of the persons selected for the three awards to the ASME Committee on Honors for the formal selection of the recipients.

The Charles Russ Richards Memorial Award is presented to an engineering graduate who has demonstrated outstanding achievement in mechanical engineering twenty years or more following graduation with a baccalaureate degree. The award is bestowed for overall outstanding achievement in the mechanical engineering field during the set period of time.

The award, established in 1944 by Pi Tau Sigma in coordination with ASME, honors Charles Russ Richards, founder of Pi Tau Sigma at the University of Illinois, former head of mechanical engineering and dean of engineering at the University of Illinois and later president of Lehigh University. He was a member of ASME and served on its Board of Governors.

Submit Nomination Here
Nomination Instructions

Form of Award:

 $1,000, certificate, and a $750 travel allowance

Limitation(s): The nominee must be person who has received a baccalaureate degree in Mechanical Engineering or other related field in more than twenty calendar years from the year of the award presentation.
Administrative Responsibility: Committee on Honors
Nomination Deadline: February 15
E-mail:  persaudl@asme.org
Awarded By: Committee on Honors (COH)

Charles Russ Richards Memorial Awardees

1947 Jacob P. Hartog
1949 Arthur M. Wahl
1950 Burgess H. Jennings
1951 J. Kenneth Salisbury
1952 Jess H. Davis
1953 Thomas M. Lumly
1954 Robert H. Hughes
1955 Sylvan Cromer
1956 Everett M. Barber
1957 Wayne C. Edmister
1958 Donald C. Burnham
1959 M. Eugene Merchant
1960 Ascher H. Shapiro
1961 Harrison A. Storm, Jr.
1962 Dudley D. Fuller
1963 George F. Carrier
1964 Simon Ostrach
1965 Leonard J. Koch
1966 J. Lowen Shearer
1967 T. Cyril Noon
1968 Bernard W. Shaffer
1969 Robert E. Uhrig
1970 Ralph G. Nevins
1971 Howard L. Harrison
1972 Charles E. Jones
1973 Ali A. Seireg
1974 Richard J. Grosh
1975 Carl F. Zorowski
1976 Ali S. Argon
1977 Hassan A. Hassan
1978 John C. Chato
1979 John H. Lienhard
1980 Albert I. King
1981 Shien-Ming Wu
1982 L. S. "Skip" Fletcher
1983 Peter A. Engel
1984 Ferdinand Freudenstein
1985 Ephraim M. Sparrow
1986 E. Kent Springer
1987 Allen F. Rhodes
1989 Ramesh K. Shah
1990 Ranga Komanduri
1991 Frederick F. Ling
1992 John H. Staehlin
1994 C. Dan Mote, Jr.
1995 Junuthula N. Reddy
1996 Tsu-Wei Chou
1997 Masayoshi Tomizuka
1998 Hong Thomas Hahn
1999 Ephraim Suhir
2000 Bharat Bhushan
2001 Adrian Bejan
2002 Salvatore Torquato
2003 Roop L. Mahajan
2005 Warren R. DeVries
2006 Ramesh K. Agarwal
2007 Ricahrd O. Buckius
2008 Guruswami Ravichandran
2009 E. Daniel Hirleman
2010 Yonggang Huang
2011 Huajian Gao
2012 Pol D. Spanos
2013 A. Galip Ulsoy
2014 Suresh V. Garimella
2015 Xiang Zhang
2016 Kenneth E. Goodson
2017 Jian Cao
2018 Kon-Well Wang
2019 Pradeep Sharma
2020 Katepalli R. Sreenivasan
2021 Wei Chen
2022 Norman A. Fleck
2023 Robert O. Ambrose
2024 Narayana R. Aluru

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