The Nichols Medal, created in 1996, recognizes outstanding contributions of an individual to design methods, software tools and instrumentation, or to significant projects resulting in major applications and advancement of control engineering. The spirit is captured by the name of Nathaniel Nichols, one of the pioneers of control engineering. The medal is awarded by the IFAC Council on the recommendation of a selection committee. A monetary prize is presented at the IFAC World Congress to the recipient together with the medal.
- 1996 San Francisco Jürgen Ackermann (DE)
- 1999 Beijing Gunther Stein (US)
- 2002 Barcelona Carl Nett (US)
- 2005 Prague William F. Powers (US)
- 2008 Seoul Gerd Hirzinger (DE)
- 2011 Milan Siva Banda (US)
- 2014 Cape Town Reza Moheimani (AU)
- 2017 Toulouse Lennart Ljung (SE)
- 2020 Berlin Masayoshi Tomizuka (US)
- 2023 Yokohama Mrdjan Jankovic (US)
- 2026 Busan Stephen P. Boyd (US)
