Technology billionaire Elon Musk received the National Medal of Science, one of the United States’ most prestigious scientific awards, on Thursday. The medal was presented to Musk by US President Donald Trump during a conference in Washington. Trump lauded Musk as a “national treasure” and “Thomas Edison of our time” during the ceremony. Musk heads the aerospace company SpaceX and the electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla. Executives from Google, Nvidia, AMD, Dell, and Microsoft were also honored with similar awards at the conference. Previously, Musk led the Office of Management and Budget until late May of last year, implementing significant cost-cutting measures and staff reductions within government agencies, before a public dispute with Trump. He now appears to be back in favor with the US president, recently being given a leading role in a project examining the future of warfare by the US Secretary of Defense.