MIT rewards and recognizes excellence in entrepreneurship through awards overseen by the Trust Center for both students (the McGovern Award) and mentors (the Monosson Prize).

The annual awards are given out at our Celebration of Entrepreneurship event in the spring, where the entire MIT entrepreneurial ecosystem gathers to salute the achievements of our students over the course of the academic year.

News Pieces

The McGovern Award is given annually to an individual or team that, in working closely with the Trust Center, has made a significant impact on the quality and overall spirit of entrepreneurship at the Institute. The objective of the award is to motivate future student leaders, raise the profile of student-led organizations, and reward individuals for outstanding achievement in building entrepreneurial excellence.

2021

David Begun, Navroop Singh Sehmi
MIT Orbit development team

Kevin D. Johnson
KINETIC

2020

Stephanie MacConnell
Healthcare Sector Practice Leader

2019

Anthony Cheng, Adam Zhao
Co-directors, StartLabs

2018

Gregory Ekchian
Healthcare Sector Practice Leader

Ingrid Oelschlager
Teaching Assistant, “Scaling Entrepreneurial Ventures” & “Introduction to Technological Entrepreneurship”

2017

Jacob Lowenstein, Helen Smith
Creative Arts Sector Practice Leaders

2016

Alessandra Henderson, Natalie Pitcher, Isaac Stoner, Liz Voeller
Sector Practice Leaders

2015

Carlos Sanchez Altable
MIT FinTech Club, Financial Innovation

Dan Elitzer, Jeremy Rubin
MIT Bitcoin Project 

2014

Andrea Ippolito
Hacking Medicine

2013

Allen Cheng, Elliot Cohen, Allison Yost
Hacking Medicine

Colin Sidoti
undergraduate entrepreneurship support and outreach

Will Whitney
StartLabs

2012

Kevin Clough, William Evans, Romi Kadri, Alexander List, Birju Shah, Parul Singh, Brett van Zuiden
application of advanced entrepreneurial techniques

2011

Vanessa Green
MIT Energy Conference

Melinda Hale, Jarrod Phipps
Building Bridges

Rene Reinsberg
Linked Data Ventures, Startup Central

Nathan Trujillo
MIT Entrepreneurship Review

2010

Erdin Beshimov, Rob Lemos, Eduard Viladesau
MIT Entrepreneurship Review

2009

Brian Cantwell, Amy Fazen, Diana Huidobro, Sombit Mishra, Lara Pierpoint, Pedro Santos, Marcio von Muhlen
MIT Clean Energy Prize, MIT Energy Club

2008

Gaetan Bonhomme, Doug Bright, Freddy Kerrest, Jeff Sabados
MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition

2007

Deric Corwin, Karina Drees, Josephine Duh, John Harthorne, Alex Min, Trond Wuellner
MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition

2006

Ore Adeyemi, Jeff Coker, Anil Dharni, Bernard Lupien, Yulia Poltorak, Mark Roberge, Vineet Thuvara
outstanding work, both in and outside of the classroom

2005

Joost Bonsen, Tony Chen, Max Feng, Jason Fuller, Mehdi Gazor, Ali Khademhoseini, John Lock, Samuel Ngai, Jose Pacheco
Chairs/Founders and Co-Presidents of TechLink

2004

Omer Cedar, Hans Tung
iTeams

2003

Brian Curtis, Joern Kallmeyer, Craig Rottenberg, Julie Smith, Dave Spector, Mike Volpe
Sloan Entrepreneurs

2002

Pablo Acosta, Eitan Becker, Julie Chang, Pavel Krapivin, Michael Parduhn, Anne Pelz, Sherwin Soo, Jelena Spasojevic, Ajay Sudan
MIT $50K Competition

2001

Olalekan Akinyanmi, Norma Castro, Jeffrey Chi, Panida Chinsupakul, Ann Cho, Kathryn Cosgrove, Michael Falcon, Rami Habal, David Lam, Hai Ning, Abel Sanchez, Julian Ting, Jennifer Wu
eMIT

2000

Rohini Chakravarthy, Ramzi Nassar, Laura Dorival Paglione, Joel Serface, Rodrigo Soares, Jeffrey Williams
MIT/Sloan Venture Capital and Principal Investing Club

Created to honor the memory of Adolf F. “Sonny” Monosson ’48, the prize recognizes entrepreneurship mentors who have committed their time, energy, and/or capital toward future generations of entrepreneurs. Established at the Sloan School of Management and made possible by Mr. & Mrs. William S. Grinker ’56, the prize continues Monosson’s mission of providing mentoring to potential entrepreneurs.

2021

Jinane Abounadi
MIT Sandbox Innovation Fund

2020

Kirk Arnold

2019

Bob Metcalfe

2018

Trish Cotter

2017

Shari Loessberg

2016

Elaine Chen

2015

Jonathan Fleming

2014

Zen Chu

2013

Bill Aulet

2012

Charles Cooney, Gururaj “Desh” Deshpande, Leon Sandler
MIT Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation

2010

Howard Anderson

2009

Antoinette Matthews
MIT Enterprise Forum, Inc.

Trish Fleming
MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge

2008

Edward B. Roberts

2007

Alec Dingee, Lou Goldish, Sherwin Greenblatt, David Staelin
MIT Venture Mentoring Service

2006

Joseph G. Hadzima, Jr.

2005

Aaron Kleiner