At a special banquet each February, the ESD Affiliate Council (made up of 92 societies) presents its most prestigious tribute, The Gold Award, to honor an outstanding engineer or scientist. Each society may nominate one individual; all nominations received are then judged by a group comprised of past Affiliate Council presidents.

1972    Walker Cisler
1973    Russell D. O’Neal, PhD
1974    Walter Kapryan, PhD
1975    Kasimer Fajans, PhD
1976    Joseph B. Olivieri, PE, FESD
1977    Sumner B. Twiss, PhD
1978    Wayne H. Jens, PhD 
1979    Stephen R. Davis, PhD, FESD
1980    Fabian C. Polcyn
1981    George E. F. Brewer, PhD
1982    Hansraj Bajaria, PhD 
1983    Julius J. Harwood, PhD, FESD
1984    Martin J. Caserio
1985    Richard E. Marburger, PhD, FESD 
1986    William G. Wood 
1987    Ruth A. Reck, PhD
1988    Edgar E. Parks, PE, FESD 
1989    Shirley E. Schwartz
1990    Ralph H. Kummler, PhD, FESD 
1991    Harold C. MacDonald, PhD, FESD
1992    Not Given
1993    William W. Scherkenbach
1994    Rose A. Ryntz, PhD
1995    Stanley Kirschner, PhD
1996    Norman A. Gjostein, PhD, FESD
1997    Kurt C. Frisch
1998    Fred W. Beaufait, PhD, FESD
1999    Simon C. Tung, PhD, FESD
2000    Not Given
2001    Jack G. Simon, PhD
2002    John R. Keough, PE, FASM
2003    Norm Kakarala, PhD
2004    John C. Bierlein, PhD
2005    Edward P. Czapor
2006    Vinod K. Sahney, PhD
2007    Levi Thompson, PhD
2008    Mumtaz A. Usmen, PhD, PE, FESD
2009    Suresh Shah, PhD
2010    Steven J. Kirk, PhD, FAIA, FSVE, CVS, LEED AP
2011    Gordon V.R. Holness, PE, Fellow ASHRAE, FMSPE 
2012    Lewis N. Walker, PhD, PE 
2013    Donald K. Cohen, PhD
2014    Kush Shah, CQE, CMQ/OE, CSSBB, Red-X Master, CQA, CBA
2015    Irvin E. Poston, PE, FESD
2016    Dawn M. Tilbury, PhD
2017    Pranab Saha, PE, PhD, INCE Bd Cert, FESD
2018    Edward P. Becker, PE, PhD
2019    Mark Zachos
2020    Arup Gangopadhyay, PhD, Fellow STLE
2021    Janice K. Means, PE, LEED AP, FESD
2022    Wei Sun, PE