--- title: 2017 Smithsonian American Ingenuity Awards Announced description: John Legend and Ava DuVernay were among the recipients of the American Ingenuity Awards from Smithsonian Magazine this year. canonical: https://time.com/5003608/smithsonian-ingenuity-awards-2017/ author: Jennifer Calfas article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-31T13:25:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T18:03:16.837Z article:section: Science og:title: Smithsonian Announced Its 2017 Ingenuity Award Winners og:description: The winners include Jony Ive, Ava DuVernay and more og:url: https://time.com/5003608/smithsonian-ingenuity-awards-2017/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltafe03a51bb86e781/6988b922fb4eac52d4890ad9/ava-duvernay.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4020 og:image:height: 2261 og:image:alt: Ava DuVernay attends the 2017 Film Independent filmmaker grant and Spirit Award nominees brunch on January 7, 2017 in West Hollywood, California. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Smithsonian Announced Its 2017 Ingenuity Award Winners twitter:description: The winners include Jony Ive, Ava DuVernay and more twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltafe03a51bb86e781/6988b922fb4eac52d4890ad9/ava-duvernay.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Smithsonian Announced Its 2017 Ingenuity Award Winners > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-futureproof-2026q3/newsletters?i=6a7717db-3e8e-4d8b-8ad3-d298534e9351&cr=time-nl-futureproof-2026q3-v1) by [Jennifer Calfas](https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/) ## Jennifer Calfas Oct 31, 2017 1:25 PM UTC  Ava DuVernay attends the 2017 Film Independent filmmaker grant and Spirit Award nominees brunch on January 7, 2017 in West Hollywood, California. Ava DuVernay attends the 2017 Film Independent filmmaker grant and Spirit Award nominees brunch on January 7, 2017 in West Hollywood, California. Jason LaVeris—FilmMagic/Getty Images by [Jennifer Calfas](https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/) ## Jennifer Calfas Oct 31, 2017 1:25 PM UTC From a groundbreaking director and screenwriter to a 12-year-old who is changing what children read, this year’s recipients of Smithsonian Magazine’s annual American Ingenuity Awards boast a wide-ranging set of accomplishments. Smithsonian Magazine last week announced its winners for the annual awards, which honor innovators in a variety of fields, including technology, history, performing arts, physical sciences and more. [Ava DuVernay](http://time.com/4752416/ava-duvernay-time-100-gala/), who became the [first](http://time.com/4928930/firsts-nancy-gibbs/item/the-director-ava-duvernay/) female African-American director to have a film nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards with 2014’s _Selma,_ will be honored for her achievements in the visual arts category. Singer-songwriter [John Legend](http://time.com/4955538/john-legend-donald-trump-nfl-protests/), who has used his platform as a celebrity to advocate for criminal justice reform and other issues, will receive the award for the performing arts category. [Jony Ive](http://fortune.com/2017/10/06/apple-steve-jobs-jony-ive/), the chief design officer at Apple who is responsible for many of the company’s designs, won the Technology award. Dave Malloy and Rachel Chavkin won the History award for their Tony Award-winning musical [_Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812_](http://time.com/4814195/tony-awards-2017/)_,_ which is an adaptation of a section of Leo Tolstoy’s _War and Peace_. For the Social Progress award, Sesame Workshop, the non-profit that supports Sesame Street, won for creating the first Muppet with autism. Marley Dias, the 12-year-old who created #1000BlackGirlBooks after she noticed a lack of racial representation in children’s literature, won for the Youth category. As for the sciences, Gary Steinberg, the chair of neurology at Stanford University, won for Life Sciences, and Natalie Batalha, mission scientist for NASA’s Kepler Mission, which is searching the Milky Way for other Earth-like planets, won for Physical Sciences. The award recipients will be honored at an event at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 29. Last year, Jeff Bezos, Aziz Ansari and the scientists who exposed the water crisis in Flint, Mich., [won](http://time.com/4575434/smithsonian-ingenuity-awards-2016/) several of the awards. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5003608/smithsonian-ingenuity-awards-2017/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5003608/smithsonian-ingenuity-awards-2017/"},"headline":"Smithsonian Announced Its 2017 Ingenuity Award Winners","datePublished":"2017-10-31T13:25:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T18:03:16.837Z","description":"The winners include Jony Ive, Ava DuVernay and more","url":"https://time.com/5003608/smithsonian-ingenuity-awards-2017/","keywords":["onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltafe03a51bb86e781/6988b922fb4eac52d4890ad9/ava-duvernay.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jennifer Calfas","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltafe03a51bb86e781/6988b922fb4eac52d4890ad9/ava-duvernay.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Ava DuVernay attends the 2017 Film Independent filmmaker grant and Spirit Award nominees brunch on January 7, 2017 in West Hollywood, California.","caption":"Ava DuVernay attends the 2017 Film Independent filmmaker grant and Spirit Award nominees brunch on January 7, 2017 in West Hollywood, California.","creditText":"Jason LaVeris—FilmMagic/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5003608/smithsonian-ingenuity-awards-2017/","name":"Smithsonian Announced Its 2017 Ingenuity Award Winners"}}]}] ```