Key Findings of "Measuring the Value of Invention"
Economic Impact
- The 26 Lemelson-MIT Prize winners were affiliated with more than 180 companies and institutions, founding more than 140 of them to develop or commercialize new inventions.
- The independent companies founded by Prize winners that are still in operation and report financial data collectively employ approximately 40,000 people and generate total annual revenues exceeding $54 billion as of 2019.
- Two companies founded by Prize winners were among the first biotechnology firms to achieve a market capitalization exceeding $100 billion. Several other publicly traded firms founded by winners had market valuations between $100 million and $50 billion as of 2020.
- At least 35 of the companies affiliated with the winners were acquired or merged with other companies in deals valued at approximately $7.5 billion (in 2019 dollars).
Technological Impact
- The 26 winners held 3,871 patents for original inventions deemed to be “novel, non-obvious and useful” by the US Patent and Trademark Office (as of January 2020).
- The patents were cited as prior art by over 40,000 subsequent patent applicants, which demonstrates that they served as material inputs to future inventions by others.
- 5,972 unique organizations were identified as having drawn on the winners’ original patents as they looked for citations for new patents.
- The winner’s patents spanned a wide range of technological classifications, with the greatest number falling in the “medical or veterinary sciences and hygiene” innovation category.
Scientific Impact
- The 26 winners have published over 3,700 articles that have accumulated over 334,000 citations (as of March 2020).
- Winners’ articles were published in 682 different journals and were assigned 8,327 unique “Keyword Plus” keywords, demonstrating substantial breadth in the scientific content covered.
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The Interviews
Case Studies
"Measuring the Value of Invention" is supplemented by video interviews and case studies with six winners describing their personal stories, produced by History Associates. The video interviews will be released in Spring 2021.
Angela Belcher
Growing up near Texas Medical Center in Houston provided Belcher with opportunities that fueled her exploration of science when she was in eighth grade.
Sangeeta Bhatia
Bhatia has always been motivated by human disease and drawn to global health, in part because of her early experiences.
Cody Friesen
Friesen’s appreciation of nature and curiosity about how the world works incited his passion for solving global environmental challenges.
Leroy Hood
Hood’s interest in biology and solving biological conundrums began with the birth of his younger brother who was diagnosed with Down Syndrome.
Robert Langer
A variety of Gilbert toy sets – including Chemistry, Erector and Microscope sparked Langer’s earliest proclivity for chemistry, engineering and lab work.
Luis von Ahn
Von Ahn’s experiences growing up in Guatemala shaped his future and at 8 years old, a gift of a Commodore 64 computer ignited his curiosity in technology.
