Past Medal Recipients

Read about the about the past recipients of the President's Medal for Science and Innovation.

2023–2024: Eric R. Fossum ’79, H’14

Eric R. Fossum majored in physics and engineering at Trinity. He went on to earn an M.S. and a Ph.D. in engineering and applied science from Yale University.

Fossum is the John H. Krehbiel Sr. Professor for Emerging Technologies at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College, director of Thayer’s Ph.D. Innovation Program, and vice provost for entrepreneurship and technology transfer at Dartmouth.

In 2017, Fossum won the prestigious Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, considered by many as engineering’s Nobel Prize. He invented the CMOS active pixel image sensor used in almost all cell-phone cameras, webcams, many digital-still cameras and in medical imaging, among other applications. He worked at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and was CEO of two successful high tech companies and is a serial entrepreneur. He has published more than 300 technical papers and holds 180 U.S. patents.

A Trinity trustee from 2014 to 2022, Fossum has served on the College’s Board of Fellows, STEM Advisory Board, and Engineering Advisory Council. He was honored with Trinity’s Alumni Achievement Award in 2004, an honorary doctor of science degree in 2014, and the Alumni Medal for Excellence in 2017. He currently serves on the Entrepreneurship Center Advisory Board.