The Inventor of the Year award is presented each year in recognition of the contribution that the invention has and/or will make towards society as a whole.
| Name | Organization | Recognized For | Year |
| Dr. Rajiv Laroia | Qualcomm Flarion | Pioneer work in the area of OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) | 2011 |
| Barber, et. al. | High School Students | NYIPLA Young Innovators award for invention related to a Curb Climbing Wheelchair | 2011 |
| Dr. Eric R. Fossum | Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth | Extensive portfolio of patents related to CMOS pixel image sensors | 2010 |
| Dr. Bernard S. Meyerson | IBM | IBM Systems & Technology Group - groundbreaking research in Si/SiGe technology | 2008 |
| Dr. Pedro M. Buarque De Macedo | Catholic University of America | Research related to glass science resulting in variety of beneficial applications | 2008 |
| Chang Yi Wang, Ph.D | United Biomedical | Work in "UBITh Peptide Immunogens" | 2007 |
| Uzoh, et al. | IBM | U.S. Patent No. 6,709,562 – relating to copper interconnect technology for semiconductor integrated circuit chips | 2006 |
| Dr. Leendert Dorst | Philips Electronics North American Corporation | Work was for Method and Apparatus for Path Planning | 2005 |
| Bonnie Bassler, Ph.D | 2004 | ||
| Dr. Jurg Zimmermann | Novartis | Inventor of the drug imatinib mesylate (STI-571), the active ingredient in anti cancer drug “Gleevec,” an oral treatment for chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) - Novartis | 2002 |
| Jay Walker | Priceline.com | Found priceline.com | 2000 |
| Dr. David C. Auth | Heart Technology, Inc. | Inventor of the ROTABLATOR® device | 1994 |
| David T. Green | 1991 | ||
| Dr. John E. Anderson | Union Carbide | 1989 | |
| Dr. Jack Riseman | IBM | 1988 | |
| Dr. Leo H. Sternbach | Inventor of LIBRIUM and VALIUM | 1987 |