The Sarton Medal, the most prestigious award of the History of Science Society, honors George Sarton, the founder of Isis and one of the founders of the modern phase in the history of science. It has been awarded annually since 1955 to an outstanding historian of science selected from the international scholarly community. The medal honors a scholar for lifetime scholarly achievement. The medal was designed by Bern Dibner and is donated each year by the Dibner Fund.

The Sarton Medalists of the History of Science Society are:

1955 George Sarton
1956 Charles and Dorothea Waley Singer
1957 Lynn Thorndike
1958 John F. Fulton
1959 Richard Shryock
1960 Owsei Temkin
1961 Alexandre Koyré
1962 E. J. Dijksterhuis
1963 Vassili Zoubov
1964 Not awarded
1965 J. R. Partington
1966 Anneliese Maier
1967 Not awarded
1968 Joseph Needham
1969 Kurt Vogel
1970 Walter Pagel
1971 Willy Hartner
1972 Kiyosi Yabuuti
1973 Henry Guerlac
1974 I. Bernard Cohen
1975 René Taton
1976 Bern Dibner
1977 Derek T. Whiteside
1978 A.P. Youschkevitch
1979 Maria Luisa Righini-Bonelli
1980 Marshall Clagett
1981 A. Rupert Hall and Marie Boas Hall
1982 Thomas S. Kuhn
1983 Georges Canguilhem
1984 Charles Coulston Gillispie
1985 Paolo Rossi
     Richard S. Westfall
1986 Ernst Mayr
1987 G.E.R. Lloyd
1988 Stillman Drake
1989 Gerald Holton
1990 A. Hunter Dupree
1991 Mirko D. Grmek
1992 Edward Grant
1993 John L. Heilbron
1994 Allen G. Debus
1995 Charles Rosenberg
1996 Loren Graham
1997 Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs
1998 Thomas L. Hankins
1999 David C. Lindberg
2000 Frederick L. Holmes