Bertozzi became the first woman ever to win the prestigious $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize, honoring mid-career inventors.
On June 2, 2010, Carolyn Bertozzi was formally named the winner of the 2010 Lemelson-MIT Prize, a $500,000 award recognizing outstanding American mid-career inventors. In receiving this honor, Bertozzi became the first woman in the prize's history to be awarded this distinction, breaking a significant barrier in a field of invention long dominated by men.
The Lemelson-MIT Prize, often referred to as the "Oscar for inventors," is bestowed by the Lemelson-MIT Program, based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and honors individuals who translate their ideas into inventions with real-world impact. Bertozzi was recognized specifically for her invention of bioorthogonal chemistry and her broader portfolio of biomedical inventions, which spanned diagnostics, imaging technologies, and novel biomaterials.
This achievement carried particular significance as it highlighted the underrepresentation of women in the recognized ranks of prolific inventors and innovators, a disparity that persisted despite women's substantial and often overlooked contributions to science and technology throughout history. Bertozzi's win drew national media attention, including coverage by the University of California, Berkeley, where she was on faculty at the time, and by scientific publications such as Nature Medicine.
Her selection as the first female Lemelson-MIT Prize winner served as an early, highly visible marker of her status as one of the most inventive scientists of her generation, foreshadowing her eventual Nobel Prize in Chemistry twelve years later.