Lew Allen Award is a medal of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Until 1990 it was called the Director’s Research Achievement Award; it was then renamed in honor of Lew Allen. This award recognises significant accomplishments or leadership early in an individual's professional career at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
* Aaron Parness, for development of new climbing robots and robotic grippers with widespread application to space and terrestrial exploration
2015
* Darmindra Arumugam, for inventing and developing Active and Passive Magneto-Quasi-Static Positioning for long-range near-field positioning for non-line of sight environments
* Sabah Bux, for leadership in the development of novel high performance high temperature nanocomposite bulk thermoelectric materials using advanced synthetic methods
* Damon Landau, for innovation in mission architecting and mission design, and for leadership and creativity in the development of advanced mission concepts
* Mathieu Choukroun, for pioneering studies of the physical properties of cryogenic materials and contributions to MIRO and the US Rosetta mission
* Andrew Klesh, for technical leadership of deep space smallsats and under-ice robotic rover technologies in support of terrestrial and outer planets exploration
* Boon Lim, for leadership and technological innovation in the emerging field of microwave remote sensing science on nanosatellites
* Piyush Agram, for major contributions to InSAR-based geodetic imaging and geophysical time series analysis
* Nacer Chahat, for demonstrated unique talent as a leader in rapid spacecraft antenna development and telecom systems engineering for CubeSats
* Arezou Khoshakhlagh, for technical innovation in developing the novel Gallium-free antimonides superlattice epitaxial material system for advanced mid-wavelength and long-wavelength infrared detectors
* Sylvain Piqueux, for leadership in the study of surface thermal properties of terrestrial worlds, and support of JPL missions to these bodies
2018
* Laura Barge, for pioneering research on the application of electrochemistry to studies of the origin and emergence of life.
* Cecile Jung-Kubiak, for demonstrated excellence in the development of innovative silicon micromachining techniques that have enabled novel electromagnetic, mechanical, and propulsion devices.
* Jose Siles, for the development of high-power ultra-compact room-temperature multi-pixel terahertz sources and receivers for balloon-borne and space instruments.
2019
* Davide Farnocchia, for exceptional leadership and research roles in orbit reconstruction and prediction of asteroids and comets.
* Joseph Masiero, for his work in establishing the physical properties of near-Earth asteroids and the threats they pose to Earth.
* Maria Fernanda Mora, for excellence in the development and validation of chemical analysis methodology and electrophoresis instruments for future life detection missions''.
