The engineer and entrepreneur is the recipient of Armenia’s State Award for Global Contribution to High Technology. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is scheduled to present it in Yerevan on 5 November 2026.
Armenia’s High-Tech Ministry has named engineer and entrepreneur Kam Ghaffarian the 2026 laureate of the Republic of Armenia State Award for Global Contribution to High Technology. His selection is announced, while the award handover in Yerevan remains forthcoming.
Hovik Musayelyan, director of Synopsys Armenia and coordinator of the award committee’s executive board and international selection committee, announced the selection at Engineering City on 6 October 2026. Armenpress’s account that day set out the planned presentation by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
Established by presidential decree in 2009, the award recognizes internationally recognized technological, educational, organizational or financial contributions that significantly advance humanity, the ministry says. Musayelyan said Ghaffarian’s path from a child inspired by the Moon landing to a space-sector leader embodied that purpose.
| Year | Company and role | Work |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Founded X-energy; chairs its board | Develops nuclear energy solutions |
| 2013 | Co-founded Intuitive Machines | Developed the Odysseus lunar spacecraft |
| 2016 |
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| Conducts commercial space missions and develops orbital infrastructure with NASA, the ministry says |
The ministry describes Odysseus’s 2024 Moon landing as the first commercial mission of its kind and the first American spacecraft to reach the lunar surface since Apollo 17.
Armenia’s technology minister, Davit Tadevosyan, said the award and laureates’ visits aim to raise Armenia’s international technology visibility and give young people opportunities to meet prominent figures in the sector.
Pashinyan is scheduled to present the award on 5 November 2026. The visit’s announced program also includes an honorary doctorate from the National Polytechnic University of Armenia and the installation of a symbolic star bearing Ghaffarian’s name at Engineering City.
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