Information, environment, energy, and consumer products gain prominence as R&D 100 Award winners in the 1990s.

R&D 100 Archieve

The 1990s started with a recession and ended with impeachment proceedings for U.S. President Bill Clinton and worries about the Y2K programming glitch. During the decade, information came of age as the general public embraced digital technologies such as smaller cell phones and the emerging "World Wide Web". The R&D 100 Awards reflected this growing interest in the digital world, with more winning entries in information technologies and software. Animation programs, computer-aided design, data storage tools, and modeling programs were among the products recognized.

The nation experienced its longest period of economic expansion during the decade as personal incomes doubled. Some disposable income was spent on entertainment products developed during the time frame. The Kodak Photo CD (1991), Digital Compact Cassette Player/Recorder from Philips Consumer Electronics (1993), and ATSC Digital Television Standard—better known as HDTV (1998)— were some leading consumer products that were R&D 100 winners.

click to enlarge Figure 1: R&D 100 Award Winners (1990 to 1999) by product category. Source: R&D 100 Archive.

The types of products that received R&D 100 Awards in the 1990s evolved; a broader range of technology types were selected as winners. Consumer products, environmental and energy technologies, and thin film/vacuum were more popular than in previous decades.

Safety and security products also increased, perhaps in response to the 1993 World Trade Center and 1995 Oklahoma City terrorist attacks.

Life sciences advances continued to emerge with the start of the Human Genome Project and the birth of Dolly the sheep, the first cloned mammal. Two leading drug therapies were recognized with R&D 100 Awards: the Nicoderm anti-smoking patch (1992) and Taxol anticancer drug (1993).

click to enlarge Figure 2. R&D 100 Award Winners (1990 to 1999) by organization type. Source: R&D 100 Archive.

The 1990s were also a prosperous time for developed nations, including Japan. Toyota garnered 20 R&D 100 awards for automotive technologies. The total moved the company on to the top 20 list of all time winners.

National labs emerge
The 1990s saw the continuation of winning technologies funded by the federal government. National laboratories dominated the list of top winners (Table 1); technologies were often developed in conjunction with private businesses. Industrial organizations continued to lead with more than 60% of all awards (Figure 2).

Space exploration made major advances. The Hubble telescope was launched; construction began on the International Space Station; and NASA's Pathfinder landed on Mars and deployed a roving vehicle.

Back on Earth, NASA continued to close the gap to the lead position of most R&D 100 wins, adding 37 wins in the decade.