1998 National Medal of Technology Recipients

Updated June 26, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

Denton A. Cooley, M.D., Founder, President, and Surgeon-in-Chief, Texas Heart Institute, Houston, Tex., for his inspirational skill, leadership, and technical accomplishments during six decades of practicing cardiovascular surgery, including having performed the first successful human heart transplant in the United States, and the world's first implantation of an artificial heart in a man as a bridge to heart transplantation, and for founding the Texas Heart Institute, which has served more heart patients than any other institution in the world.

Team Award (Jointly): Robert T. Fraley, Robert B. Horsch, Ernest G. Jaworski, and Stephen G. Rogers (Monsanto) in St. Louis, Mo., for their pioneering achievements in plant biology and agricultural biotechnology, and for global leadership in the development and commercialization of genetically modified crops to enhance agricultural productivity and sustainability. Robert Fraley is Copresident of the Agricultural Sector; Robert Horsch is Copresident of the Sustainable Development Sector and General Manager of the Agracetus Research Campus; Ernest Jaworski is the retired Director of the Biological Sciences Program; and Stephen Rogers is Director of Biotechnology Projects at Monsanto's European Center for Crop Research, Brussels, Belgium.

Biogen, Inc., Cambridge, Mass., for its leadership in applying breakthroughs in biology to the development of life-saving and life-enhancing pharmaceutical products designed to treat large, previously underserved patient populations throughout the world; and for the development of hepatitis B vaccines, the first vaccines using recombinant DNA technology.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, New York, N.Y., for extending and enhancing human life through innovative pharmaceutical research and development, and for redefining the science of clinical study through groundbreaking and extremely complex clinical trials that are now recognized as industry models.