Award

The Samson – Prime Minister Award for innovation in alternative energy and smart mobility for transportation

As part of Eric and Sheila Samson’s enormous vision for global transportation free of oil, they founded the world’s largest prize: The Sheila and Eric Samson Annual Award, totaling one million US dollars.

Between 2013 and 2021, scientists who made critical advancements toward this goal were awarded for their achievements during the past Smart Mobility Summits. One of the Samson Award winners in 2015, Prof. John Goodenough, became the Nobel Prize laureate in 2019.

Between 2015 and 2021, the Ministry of Science & Technology led a rigorous selection process for the laureates based on recommendations submitted by university presidents and industry-leading CEOs in Israel and abroad. The laureates were selected by a committee of international experts who submitted their recommendations to a board of trustees

Given the growing worldwide success and interest in smart mobility issues, the International Smart Mobility Summit will, from now on, be carried out under the auspices of Sheila and Eric Samson. At the same time, the Ministry of Transportation, in collaboration with the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology, will provide grants for research in the field of smart mobility as part of the existing mechanism in the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology and funded from the budget of the Smart Mobility Initiative.
 
The Samson – Prime Minister lories:
Prof. James Liao
Prof. Avner Rothschild
Prof. Gideon Grader
Dr. Yair Carmon
Dr. Yaniv Romano
Dr. Ido Hadar
Dr. Mor Nitzan
Prof. Omri Weinstein

2021 Winners

The Prize for Groundbreaking Research in The
Areas of Smart Mobility

Prof. James Liao
Academia Sinica, Taiwan
President of Academia Sinica

Prof. Avner Rothschild
Technion- Israel Institute of Technology ISRAEL Professors Materials Science and Engineering, Chemical Engineering

Prof. Gideon Grader
Technion- Israel Institute of Technology ISRAEL Professors Materials Science and Engineering, Chemical Engineering

The Prize for
Researcher Recruitment

Dr. Yair Carmon
Tel Aviv University, Israel
Assistant Professor, Computer Science

Dr. Yaniv Romano
Stanford University, USA
Postdoctoral fellow, Statistics

Dr. Ido Hadar
Northwestern University (Evanston, Illinois) USA,
Postdoctoral Scholar Department of Chemistry

Dr. Mor Nitzan
Senior Lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Prof. Omri Weinstein
Currently at Columbia University. Assistant Professor, Computer Science

2019 Winners

(The Prize for Groundbreaking Research in The Areas of Fuel Alternatives and Smart Mobility)

Prof. Emanuel Peled
Professor Emeritus, School of Chemistry, Tel Aviv University

Prof. Sang Yup Lee
Distinguished Professor and Dean, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)

2019 WINNERS

(THE RESEARCHER RECRUITMENT PRIZE)

Prof. Leonard J. Schulman
Professor of Computer Science, Caltech

Tali Dekel
Senior Research Scientist, Google, Cambridge MA

2018 WINNERS

Doron Aurbach
Chemistry Department, Bar Ilan University, Israel

Dr. Lars Peter Lindfors
Senior Vice President, Technology, Neste

2017 WINNERS

Prof. Jens Nielsen
Systems and Synthetic Biology, Chalmers University of Technology

Prof. Jean-Marie Tarascon
Professor of Chemistry at the Collège de France

2016 WINNERS

Prof. Gregory Stephanopoulos
Professor of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, MIT, USA

Prof. Mercouri Kanatzidis
Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor of Chemistry, Northwestern University, USA

2015 WINNERS

Prof. John B Goodenough
Virginia H. Cockrell Centennial Chair in Engineering

Prof. Jay D Keasling
University of California, Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

2014 WINNERS

Prof. Thomas Meyer
The University of North Carolina, USA

Prof. Sang Yup Lee
Distinguished Professor and Dean, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)

2013 WINNERS

Prof. George A. Olah
University of Southern California, USA

Prof. G.K. Surya Prakash
University of Southern California, USA