Special Report
2016 Ingenuity Awards
“Thanks to her,” John Frederick Nims writes in his love poem to gravity, “All’s gala in the galaxy.” Such a deep appreciation for gravity’s wonderful predictability is, just by chance, a recurring theme of this year’s Smithsonian American Ingenuity Awards. Jeff Bezos is defying gravity with his spaceflight company’s reusable rocket ships. The scientists behind the stupendous LIGO instrument detected, for the first time ever, the whisper of a gravitational wave from the far reaches of the universe. And the rock band OK Go’s lighthearted nature was never so clear as in its topsy-turvy, low-gravity video. Those musical magicians, like all the American Ingenuity Award winners, dazzle us with their eagerness to break boundaries. And they make it look like fun.
Read about this year's winners below and watch the livestream of the Ingenuity Awards on December 8 at 8 pm on our Facebook page.
This Year's Winners
Is Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin the Future of Space Exploration?
No one had ever launched, landed and relaunched a rocket into space until the company's historic achievement
Space Archaeologist Sarah Parcak Uses Satellites to Uncover Ancient Egyptian Ruins
The Indiana Jones of low Earth orbit harnesses 21st-century technology to uncover long-buried treasures
With "Master of None," Aziz Ansari Has Created a True American Original
The star of the breakout television series brings the voice of his generation to the masses
How OK Go Has Revolutionized the Music Video
To pull off one of their most daring videos, they needed a borrowed Russian transport jet, spreadsheets and calculus, and a lot of motion-sickness medicine
Director David Lynch Wants Schools to Teach Transcendental Meditation to Reduce Stress
The acclaimed filmmaker has become the champion of the practice that's now been adopted by thousands of kids
Need a New Organ? Surgeon Anthony Atala Sees a Future Where You Can Simply Print It Out
When you can order a new body part online, you’ll have this doctor to thank
Meet the Team of Scientists Who Discovered Gravitational Waves
This year, the geniuses behind LIGO announced that they had finally found what Albert Einstein had predicted a century ago
Without These Whistleblowers, We May Never Have Known the Full Extent of the Flint Water Crisis
A concerned mother and a renowned scientist spearheaded the investigation that exposed the dangers lurking in the water supply of the Michigan city
Christopher Gray's Scholly App Is Bringing Millions of Dollars to College Students in Need
The entrepreneur's new digital platform has helped applicants land $50 million in scholarships
Past Winners
2015
The 2015 American Ingenuity Awards
Featuring Hamilton composer Lin-Manuel Miranda, comedians Fred Armisen and Bill Hader, and Pluto explorer Alan Stern
2014
The 2014 American Ingenuity Awards
Featuring musician Rosanne Cash, artist Janet Echelman, filmmaker Bill Morrison, and bionic limb pioneer Hugh Herr
2013
The 2013 American Ingenuity Awards
Featuring novelist Dave Eggers, musician St. Vincent, engineer Adam Steltzner, and education scholar Caroline Hoxby
Photo credits: Jeff Bezos/John Keatley; Sarah Parcak/Melissa Golden/Satellite image courtesy of Sarah Parcak; Aziz Ansari/Landon Nordeman; David Lynch/Brinson + Banks; Anthony Atala/Alex Boerner; Rainer Weiss, Kip Thorne and Barry Barish/Brinson + Banks; Marc Edwards and LeeAnne Walters/Tobias Hutzler; Christopher Gray/Jonathan Barkat
