In May, 1989 the SEM Executive Board formally established the Felix Zandman Award. The award honors Dr. Zandman for his extensive work with photoelastic coatings and his support of SEM. The recipient receives an award plaque. Also, a donation is given in the recipient's name to the SEM Education Foundation. The award honors individuals who have made significant contributions to the development of measurements or applications utilizing photoelastic coatings. The selection will be based upon the best paper published by SEM or any other recognized journal which publishes photoelastic coatings papers. Alternatively, a person who may not have published an outstanding paper, but has distinguished him or herself in other ways in the use of photoelastic coatings may also be nominated. The first recipient to be recognized in 1990 was Alex S. Redner.

List of recipients:

Founder, Chairman of the Board, and CTO of Vishay Intertechnology,
Dr. Felix Zandman, Inventor of the PhotoStress® method

Year	Recipient
2012	Krishnamurthi Ramesh
2011	Emmanuel Gdoutos
2010	Philippe Brailly
2009	Terry Yuan-Fang Chen
2008	Michel Taroni
2007	Baruch (Bob) Ziv
2006	John Curtis
2005	Jon Lesniak
2004	E.A. Patterson
2003	I.J. Jones
2001	N. Plouzennec
2000	Loic M. Dejardin
1999	T.W. Corby, Jr.
1998	J.L.F. Freire
1997	S.C. Gambrell, Jr.
1996	R. Slaminko
1994	S.C. Gambrell, Jr.
1993	J. Stupnecki
1992	E.W. O'Brien
1991	W.E. Nickola
1990	A.S. Redner