Ken Burns – Photo Credit Evan Barlow (2018)
The National Institute of Social Sciences is delighted to announce documentarian and filmmaker Ken Burns as one of the 2024 Honorees for its Gold Honor Medal for distinguished service to society and humanity.
The National Institute will celebrate Mr. Burns and the other Honorees at the 110th Annual Gold Medal Gala, which will be held in person in New York City on Tuesday, December 10, 2024. We hope you will be able to join us to honor Mr. Burns and our other extraordinary Honorees and their accomplishments.
Ken Burns has been making documentary films for almost fifty years. Since the Academy Award nominated Brooklyn Bridge in 1981, Ken has gone on to direct and produce some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made, including The Civil War; Baseball; Jazz; The War; The National Parks: America’s Best Idea; Prohibition; The Roosevelts: An Intimate History; The Vietnam War; Country Music; The U.S. and the Holocaust; and, most recently, The American Buffalo.
Future film projects include Leonardo da Vinci, The American Revolution, Emancipation to Exodus, and LBJ & the Great Society, among others.
Ken’s films have been honored with dozens of major awards, including seventeen Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards and two Oscar nominations. In September of 2008, at the News & Documentary Emmy Awards, Ken was honored by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences with a Lifetime Achievement Award. In November of 2022, Ken was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.
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One of the nation’s oldest honorary societies, the National Institute of Social Sciences has presented Gold Medals each year to men and women whose lives have manifested the highest achievements and who have made significant contributions to society and to humanity. This year’s Honorees joined a distinguished, diverse pantheon of Honorees that stretches back to 1913.
Recent Gold Medal Honorees include Jonathan F. Fanton, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, and James H. and Marilyn H. Simons (2023); Dr. Philip J. Landrigan, Jennifer J. Raab, and Neil deGrasse Tyson (2022); Kwame Anthony Appiah, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Amartya Sen (2021); Max Stier, Darren Walker, and Judy Woodruff (2020); Paul Edward Farmer and Peter Gelb (2019); Daniel Kahneman, Geraldine Kunstadter, and Elizabeth Barlow Rogers (2018); Ron Chernow, Robert Shiller, and Michael Sovern (2017); Pauline Newman, Richard L. Ottinger, and Robert Putnam, (2016); and John Bogle, Paul Krugman, and Michelle Kwan (2015).
Previous Gold Medal Honorees, 1913-2023
About the National Institute of Social Sciences
Established in 1912, the National Institute of Social Sciences is a voluntary association of public-spirited citizens who explore issues of urgent and lasting concern. One of the nation’s oldest honorary societies, the National Institute sponsors speeches, discussions, and events that encourage balanced, non-partisan debate and discussion; celebrates distinguished Americans and world leaders who have contributed at the highest level to the welfare and improvement of society; and provides financial support to emerging scholars who are conducting research in the social sciences.