The Magellanic Premium, also known as the Magellanic Gold Medal and Magellanic Prize is awarded for major contributions in the field of navigation (whether by sea, air, or in space), astronomy, or natural philosophy.

The Premium was established in 1786 through a grant by Jean-Hyacinthe Magellan . Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin

Dr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...

, then President of the American Philosophical Society

American Philosophical Society

The American Philosophical Society, founded in 1743, and located in Philadelphia, Pa., is an eminent scholarly organization of international reputation, that promotes useful knowledge in the sciences and humanities through excellence in scholarly research, professional meetings, publications,...

, accepted it and established the terms of reference under which it would be given.

In the 217 years since Magellan offered the Premium, the APS has awarded on only 33 occasions (as of 2008): twelve for navigation, twelve for natural philosophy, and eight for astronomy. This highly prestigious award arguably serves as a useful companion to the Nobel Prize

Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...

 in that the latter is not awarded directly in any of these fields.

Recipients of the Magellanic Premium

• 1790 Francis Hopkinson
  Francis Hopkinson
  Francis Hopkinson , an American author, was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence as a delegate from New Jersey. He later served as a federal judge in Pennsylvania...
  
  
• 1792 Robert Patterson
  Robert Patterson (educator)
  Robert Patterson was an American educator and director of the United States Mint. He was born on a lease-held farm near Hillsborough, County Down, Ireland, emigrated to the United States in 1768, and lived for a time in Philadelphia.In 1774, he became principal of an academy in Wilmington, Delaware...
  
   and William Thornton
  William Thornton
  Dr. William Thornton was a British-American physician, inventor, painter and architect who designed the United States Capitol, an authentic polymath...
  
  
• 1794 Nicholas Collin
• 1804 William Mugford and Benjamin Smith Barton
• 1807 John Garnett
• 1809 James Humphreys
• 1820 Josiah Chapman
• 1823 James Ewing
  James Ewing (Pennsylvania statesman)
  James Ewing was a Pennsylvania soldier, statesman, and politician of the Colonial, Revolutionary and post-Revolutionary eras. He served in the Pennsylvania General Assembly and also as Vice-President of Pennsylvania, a position comparable to that of Lieutenant Governor.-Early life and family:James...
  
  
• 1825 Charles D. Brodie
• 1836 James P. Espy
• 1864 Pliny Earle Chase
• 1887 Lewis M. Haupt
• 1922 Paul R. Heyl and Lyman James Briggs
  Lyman James Briggs
  Lyman James Briggs was an American engineer, physicist and administrator. He was a distinguished director of the National Bureau of Standards during the Great Depression and chairman of the Uranium Committee before America entered the Second World War...
  
  
• 1952 James Gilbert Baker
  James Gilbert Baker
  James Gilbert Baker was an American astronomer and designer of optics systems.-Biography:He was born in Louisville, Kentucky to Jesse B. Baker and Hattie M. Stallard, the fourth child of that couple. He attended Louisville duPont Manual High School then majored in mathematics at the University of...
  
  
• 1953 Philip Van Horn Weems
  P. V. H. Weems
  Philip Van Horn Weems was a United States Navy officer, inventor of navigational instruments and methods, including the Weems Plotter and the Second Setting Watch, and author of navigational textbooks.-Biography:...
  
  
• 1956 Karl von Frisch
  Karl von Frisch
  Karl Ritter von Frisch was an Austrian ethologist who received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1973, along with Nikolaas Tinbergen and Konrad Lorenz....
  
  
• 1959 Charles Stark Draper
  Charles Stark Draper
  Charles Stark Draper was an American scientist and engineer, often referred to as "the father of inertial navigation." He was the founder and director of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, later renamed the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, which under his direction designed and built the Apollo...
  
  
• 1960 Stuart William Seeley
  Stuart William Seeley
  Stuart William Seeley was a noted American electrical engineer, best known for inventing the Foster-Seeley discriminator and SHORAN....
  
  
• 1961 Edward L. Beach, Jr.
  Edward L. Beach, Jr.
  Edward Latimer Beach, Jr. was a highly-decorated United States Navy submarine officer and best-selling author....
  
  
• 1966 William Hayward Pickering
  William Hayward Pickering
  William Hayward Pickering ONZ KBE was a New Zealand born rocket scientist who headed Pasadena, California's Jet Propulsion Laboratory for 22 years, retiring in 1976...
  
  
• 1971 Paul M. Muller and William L. Sjogren
• 1975 Robert Herman
  Robert Herman
  Robert Herman was a United States scientist, best known for his work with Ralph Alpher in 1948-50, on estimating the temperature of cosmic microwave background radiation from the Big Bang explosion....
  
   and Ralph A. Alpher
• 1980 Martin Lindauer
  Martin Lindauer
  Martin Lindauer was a German behavioral scientist. Lindauer studied communication systems in various species of social bees including stingless bees and honey bees. Much of his work was done in collaboration with Warwick Kerr in Brazil.-Biography:Martin Lindauer was born in Upper Bavaria...
  
  
• 1984 J. Frank Jordon
• 1988 George C. Weiffenbach and William H. Guier
• 1990 Joseph H. Taylor
• 1992 Edward C. Stone
  Edward C. Stone
  Edward Carroll Stone is a professor of physics at Caltech, space scientist, and former director of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory .-Caltech:...
  
  
• 1994 Gordon H. Pettengill
  Gordon Pettengill
  Gordon Pettengill is a noted American radio astronomer and planetary physicist.-Early life and education:Pettengill was born in Providence, Rhode Island. As a young man he was enthralled with radio and electronics, taking apart and building old radios...
  
  
• 1997 Bradford W. Parkinson
  Bradford Parkinson
  Bradford Parkinson is an American engineer and inventor, and United States Air Force colonel best known as the father of the Global Positioning System....
  
   and Roger L. Easton
  Roger L. Easton
  Roger L. Easton is an American scientist. He is the principal inventor and designer of the Global Positioning System . In 1955, Easton co-wrote the Naval Research Laboratory's Project Vanguard proposal for a U.S. satellite program in competition with two other proposals, including a proposal from...
  
  
• 2000 S. Jocelyn Bell Burnell
• 2002 Wendy Freedman
• 2004 John E. Carlstrom
• 2008 Margaret J. Geller