The Bessemer Gold Medal is awarded annually by the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) "for outstanding services to the steel industry, to the inventor or designer of any significant innovation in the process employed in the manufacture of steel, or for innovation in the use of steel in the manufacturing industry or the economy generally". The recipient is expected to prepare and deliver the Bessemer Lecture.
It was established and endowed to the Iron and Steel Institute in 1874 by Sir Henry Bessemer and was first awarded to Isaac Lowthian Bell in 1874. The Iron and Steel Institute merged in 1974 into the Institute of Metals, which in 1993 became part of the Institute of Materials, which in turn became part of the IOM3 in 2002.