The NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal (abbrv. ESAM) was established by NASA on September 15, 1961, when the original ESM was divided into three separate awards. Under its guidelines, the ESAM is awarded for unusually significant scientific contribution toward achievement of aeronautical or space exploration goals. This award may be given for individual efforts that have resulted in a contribution of fundamental importance in this field, or have significantly enhanced understanding of this field."Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal", webpage of the Orders and Medals Society of America. Retrieved November 15, 2007.

Recipients (incomplete list) 1962 – Robert E. Bourdeau 1963 – John Houbolt 1965 – Jack N. James 1966 – Richard Franz Joseph Arenstorf (He was awarded the medal for his contributions to the Space Navigation and the Apollo Lunar Landing Program.The Tennessean, Nashville, TN. Sunday, 28 Sep 2014 1968 – G. Mervin Ault 1969 – Charles Berry, William F. Brown, Thomas Canning, Moustafa Chahine, Hong-Yee Chiu, Clarence Cone, James Downey, Erwin Fehlberg, Richard Green, Rudolf Hanel, Webb Haymaker, Gerhard B. Heller, Harvey Hubbard, James Humphreys, Mark Kelly, James Kupperian, Dale Lumb, Wolfgang Moeckel, Paul Muller, Robert Naumann, William O'Bryant, George Pieper, Henry Plotkin, Joseph Randall, Donald Rea, Nancy Roman, Lee Scherer, William Sjorgen, Charles Sonett, Robert Stone, David Wark, Richard Whitcomb, Donald Wise 1970 – William Angele, James R. Arnold, Paul Coleman, Leverett Davis, Milner Eskew, Herbert Friedman, Paul Gast, Peter Macdoran, Warren Martin, Maurice Morin, Marcia Neugebauer, Edward Perkins, Edward Smith, Conway Snyder, Nelson Spencer, Patrick Thaddeus, Robert Walker, Gerald Wasserburg 1971 – John C. Freche 1972 – Robert Steinbacher, Thomas C. Duxbury, Charles H. Acton, George Robert Carruthers 1973 – William A. Fischer, Founder & Sr. Scientist, EROS Space Program; Recipient of the US Distinguished Service Award & many others, including E. Dale Jackson. [Conway B. Leovy] 1974 – John A. Simpson,"Guide to the John A. Simpson Papers", webpage of the University of Chicago Library. Retrieved November 15, 2007. William Edgar Thornton August F. Witt, Carolyn L. Huntoon 1975 – Edward Purdy Ney 1976 – Tito T. Serafini 1977 – Janos K. Lanyi 1978 – Elihu Boldt, Hale Bradt, Herbert Friedman, Gordon Garmire, Herbert Gursky, Walter Lewin, Frank McDonald, Laurence Peterson,NASA News (MSFC), Release No. 78-85, 20 July 1978 Alvin Seiff, Robert Tolson 1979 – Milton Halem 1980 – Riccardo Giacconi (2002 Nobel Laureate in Physics) 1981 – Andrew Ingersoll, Talivaldis Spalvins 1982 – Mary Helen Johnston, Jeff Cuzzi, James V. Taranik 1983 – Joel S. Levine 1984 – Donald B. Campbell, Fred Gillett, James R. Houck, Frank Low 1985 – Prem Chand Pandey, SAC/ISRO, NCAOR and IIT Kharagpur, India, Parviz Moin 1986 – Jeff Cuzzi, Crofton B. Farmer, Frank J. Grunthaner, Taylor G. Wang 1988 – Nitza Margarita Cintrón, Hal A. Weaver, Michael J. Mumma 1989 – Mario Molina (1995 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry), Donald J. Kessler, Inez Fung 1990 – Charles M. Telesco, John W. Harvey,J. Harvey Curriculum Vitae , webpage retrieved November 15, 2007. Martin A. Pomerantz 1991 – Khairul B. M. Q. Zaman, John C. Mather (2006 Nobel Laureate in Physics), Manuel D. Salas, Roy W. Spencer, John Christy 1992 – Charles L. Bennett, John C.Brandt, Edward S. Cheng, Donald D. Clayton, Holland C. Ford, Edward J. Groth, Richard J. Harms, Sara E. Heap, Peter Jakobson, William H. Jefferys, Thomas Kelsall, Michael D. King, Tod R. Lauer, David S. Leckrone, F. Duccio Macchetto, Stephan S. Meyers, S. Harvey Moseley, Thomas L. Murdock, Ruth Pater, Michael J. Prather, Richard A. Shafer, Robert F. Silverberg, Wei-kuo Tao, James A. Westphal, Ray J. Weymann, Edward L. Wright, James A. DiCarlo, Nathan S. Jacobson, George Smoot (2006 Nobel Laureate in Physics) 1993 – Rebecca A. MacKay 1994 – Robert A. Bindschadler, Theodore E. Bunch, Emmett W. Chappelle, Malcolm M. Cohen, Dale P. Cruikshank, Hay C. Hardin, Alice K. Harding, Donald Horan, Winifred M. Huo, Isabella T. Lewis, Erick Malaret, Camden McCarl, Robert Riesse, Piers J. Sellers, Trevor C. Sorensen, Thomas A. Zang Jr. 1995 – James L. Smialek, Maria T. Zuber, Robert D. Moser 1996 – Kevin Zahnle, Carolyn Shoemaker, Eugene Merle Shoemaker 1997 – James O. Arnold, David H. Atkinson, David H. Bailey, John E. Carlstrom, Ara Chutjian, John W. Connell, Harald M. Fischer, Everett K. Gibson Jr., William L. Grose, Marshall K. Joy, Kathie L. Thomas-Keprta, Louis J. Lanzerotti, David S. McKay, Michael J. Mumma, Hasso B. Niemann, Glenn S. Orton, Peter A. Pilewskie, Carolyn Purvis, Boris Ragent, Alvin Seiff, Lawrence Sromovsky, Ulf von Zahn, Richard N. Zare 1998 – Narottam P. Bansal, Timothy J. Lee 1999 – Jeff Cuzzi, Martin Weisskopf 2000 – Hugh J. Christian Jr., Joan Feynman, Mona J. Hagyard, Yoram J. Kaufman, Ellis E. Remsberg 2002 – Thomas P. Charlock, Gilles Peltzer 2003 – Philip R. Christensen, Jean O. Dickey, Geoffrey W. Marcy, Martin G. Mlynczak, Ronald L. Moore, Richard F. Mushotzky, Eric Rignot, Farid Salama, Wei-Kuo Tao 2004 – Charles L. Bennett, Randall G. Hulet, David P. Kratz, Steven J. Ostro, Thomas L. Sever, Chris R. Webster, Yuk-ling Yung 2005 – Ichiro Fukumori, James R. Houck, Nicholas Leventis, Steven Suess, Michael Watkins 2006 – Michael F. A'Hearn, David Charbonneau, Drake Deming, Neil Gehrels, John Le Marshall, Edward C. Stone, Tod Strohmayer, Larry W. Thomason 2007 – Scott Braun, Donald Brownlee, Joan Centrella, Moustafa Chahine, Mark S. Marley, Eric Rignot, Alan Title 2008 – Anthony Del Genio, David G. Fischer, Gerald M. Heymsfield, Russell A. Howard, Ronald Kwok, Michael I. Mishchenko, Son V. Nghiem 2009 – James E. Fesmire, Gilles Peltzer, Michael J. Mumma, Anne R. Douglass 2010 – Peter H. Smith, William V. Boynton, Heather L. Enos, Christopher R. Shinohara 2011 – Carl J. Grillmair, Suzanne E. Smrekar, Yuhe T. Song, Timothy J. Lee, Eric Jensen, Jason Rowe, Jeff Scargle, Cheryl A. Nickerson 2013 – David Paige 2014 – Joshua Coleman, Daniel Huber 2015 – Carrie M. Anderson 2016 – David R. Ciardi, Amy R. Winebarger, Francesco Tombesi, Hiroya Yamaguchi, Ignacy Telesman, Jason Rowe 2017 – Sylvain Guiriec, Maria Cristina De Sanctis, Samuel Gulkis, Thomas H. Prettyman, Michele Vallisneri, Kasthuri J. Venkateswaran, Beth Lewandowski 2018 – Susan E. Mullally, Michael B. Stenger, Adolfo Figueroa Vinas, Gordon Holman, Lazaros Oreopoulos, Richard Ray, M. Cristina De Sanctis, Walter A. Petersen, Michael Russell 2019 – John D. Bolten, Carl R. Devore, Alex Glocer, Jonathan H. Jiang, Erin A. Kara, Fei Liu, Elizabeth A. MacDonald, Amy A. Simon, Lynn B. Wilson III, Cheol Park, Andreas Nathues 2020 – Renee C. Weber, Zaven Arzoumanian 2021 – John Baross, Eli Dwek, Floyd William Stecker, Xu Liu, Eleonora Troja 2022 – Sibasish Laha, Jane Rigby, Michael McElwain, Charles Nickolos Arge, Peter Kalmus 2023 – Hongbin Yu, Koji Mukai, Glyn Collinson, Pankaj Kumar, Ju-mee Ryoo, Noah Randolph-Flagg 2024 – Mathias Benn, Bjorn Davidsson, Christina Plainaki, Federico Tosi, Jason Williams See also List of NASA awards

References

External links List of NASA Honor Awards Materials Division – NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medals