This award is made annually to staff, faculty, or an MIT-affiliated individual (not a team) who has given "special service of outstanding merit performed for the Institute."
Nomination and Selection
Each year MIT solicits nominations for the Gordon Y. Billard award, named in honor of Mr. Billard, a member of the Class of 1924.
The 2025 nomination window will open in the fall of 2024.
Selection
Nominations are reviewed by a three-person Committee including the Chancellor and the Assistant Provost for Administration. The Committee reviews nominations against the award criteria.
About the Award
The nominee must have made an impact beyond normal job duties, and created important, lasting, and wide-ranging contributions to the MIT community. These efforts can be broad in scope (affecting many departments, units, or people), and/or significant in duration.
Nominees should have sustained contributions for ten or more years to the Institute. Examples include serving as chair of a cross-departmental task force whose findings or actions moved MIT’s mission forward, or nurturing a new student program.
Past recipients have typically shown a significant portfolio of service to MIT. Nominations may include input from multiple nominators, but must not exceed 6 pages in total.
Award presentation
The award is presented at the MIT Excellence Awards + Collier Medal celebration in June each year.
Prior recipients
2022
- Edward Moriarty, Edgerton Center
- Emma Teng, Global Studies and Languages
2021
- Dennis Collins, Housing & Residential Services, DSL
- Rick Danheiser, Chemistry
- Kristala Prather, Chemical Engineering
2020
- Lawrence Gallagher, Open Learning, Supporting Unit, MVP
- Kimberly Bernard, CAPD
2019
- Mark DiVincenzo, Vice President and General Counsel
- Professor Sheila Widnall, AeroAstro
2018
- Chris Terman, Senior Lecturer, EECS
- Stu Schmill '86, Dean of Admissions and Student Financial Services, OVC
2017
- Gayle Gallagher, Institute Affairs
- Ian Waitz, School of Engineering
2016
- Alyce Johnson, Human Resources
- Jagruti Patel ‘97, Chancellor's Office
- Professor John Ochsendorf, Architecture/CEE
2015
- John P. Dunbar, Assistant to the Provost for Space Planning
- Professor Adèle Naudé Santos, Architecture
2014
- Claude Canizares
- Dorothy Mark
- Roger Mark
2013
- Professor Suzanne Berger, Political Science
- Daniel E. Hastings, Dean for Undergraduate Education
2012
- Professor J. Kim Vandiver, Dean for Undergraduate Research, Mechanical Engineering
Who was Gordon Y. Billard?
Gordon Y. Billard, an expert in finance and investing, was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1900. He prepared at the University of Cincinnati for two years before coming to MIT, where he earned an S.B. in business administration in 1924. He subsequently pursued additional education in business, finance, and law at New York University. Mr. Billard was a partner at J.R. Williston & Company of New York and worked as a statistician, analyst, and financial consultant for many years. Shortly before his death in 1983, he established the Gordon Y. Billard Fund in memory of his mother. The fund provides for the Gordon Y. Billard Award and endows several professorships at the Alfred P. Sloan School of Management.
Questions?
Please contact billard-award@mit.edu.
