June 04, 2019

Media Contact

Heather Thorstensen
Manager of Communications
Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society
hthorstensen@sigmaxi.org or (919) 549-4691 ext. 216


Gordon Moore, front right, is the 2019 recipient of the highest honor from Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society—the Gold Key Award. From back left is Sigma Xi Executive Director and CEO Jamie Vernon, President-Elect Geraldine Richmond, and Sigma Xi member and Richmond’s husband Steve Kevan. Seated in the front left is Moore’s wife, Betty, co-founder of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC—Attendees at the 2019 Sigma Xi Annual Meeting and Student Research Conference this November in Madison, Wisconsin, will hear a personal, recorded message from Intel Corporation cofounder Gordon Moore. 

Moore is the 2019 recipient of Sigma Xi’s highest honor, the Gold Key Award. The Society’s Executive Committee and Board of Directors present the award to recognize a member’s extraordinary contributions to his or her profession and for carrying out the values in Sigma Xi’s mission—fostering critical innovations to enhance the health of the research enterprise, cultivating integrity in research, or promoting the public understanding of science. The award consists of a medal in the shape of a gold key, the symbol of Sigma Xi. 

Moore was president, chief executive officer, and chairman of the board of directors of Intel. He devised Moore’s law, a projection that the number of transistors per silicon chip doubles approximately every two years. Moore’s law has guided long-term planning in the semiconductor industry for decades. Since then, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation was established by Moore and his wife to support path-breaking scientific discovery, environmental conservation, patient care improvements, and preservation of the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Sigma Xi President-Elect Geraldine Richmond and Executive Director and CEO Jamie Vernon traveled to Hawaii to present the Gold Key Award to Moore at his home on May 29. Also in attendance was Betty Moore and Richmond’s husband, Sigma Xi member Steve Kevan. The Sigma Xi delegation presented the medal with a letter that reads, “We are so proud to have you as a Sigma Xi member, and we are so honored to have you as the recipient of the Sigma Xi Gold Key Award, for you are one of the most influential scientists in history.”

More photos from the award presentation

Sigma Xi President-Elect Geraldine Richmond, on right, reads the Gold Key Award letter to Gordon and Betty Moore.

Sigma Xi President-Elect Geraldine Richmond places the 2019 Gold Key Award around Gordon Moore’s neck.