President Barack Obama on Thursday awarded four Bay Area researchers — two from UC Berkeley and two from Stanford — with the nation’s top honors for science and technology.

“It’s not just the winner of the Super Bowl or the NCAA tournament that deserves a celebration,” the president said at a White House ceremony. “We want the winners of science fairs, we want those who have invented the products and lifesaving medicines and are engineering our future to be celebrated as well.”

The National Medal of Technology and Innovation went to eight U.S. researchers, including Chenming Hu, a UC Berkeley professor emeritus of electrical engineering and computer sciences, for his contributions to microelectronics. His team developed the FinFET, a type of transistor used in modern computer processors.

Nine researchers were awarded the National Medal of Science, including:

Paul Alivisatos, a UC Berkeley chemist and past director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who is known for his research on the production of nanocrystals and their use in solar energy applications. He was cited for his contributions to nanoscience.

Albert Bandura, a Stanford psychologist, for his work showing the powerful effects of self-efficacy on motivation and behavior change.