Millennium Technology Prize

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Logo of the Millennium Technology Prize

The Millennium Technology Prize (Finnish: Millennium-teknologiapalkinto) is Finland's recognition for innovators that aim to improve quality of life and raise its profile as a high-tech country.

Contents

[edit] The Prize

The Prize celebrates innovations that have a favourable impact on quality of life and wellbeing or on sustainable development. It has been established to steer the course of technological development to a more humane direction. The objective of the Millennium Technology Prize is to highlight technical development that has a humanitarian focus, to make the work of researchers and application builders in different sectors better known, and to encourage discussion and debate between researchers, companies, and national and communal decision makers.

The Millennium Prize is awarded by the Millennium Prize Foundation (Formely Finnish Technology Award Foundation), established in 2002 by eight Finnish organisations supporting technological development and innovation. The prize sum of one million euros (~US$ 1.5 million) is awarded every second year and is presented by the president of Finland. The Millennium Technology Prize is the world's largest technology award. The predecessor to the Millennium Prize was the Walter Ahlström prize given out by the Ahlstrom Corporation.

Compared to the Nobel Prize the Millennium Prize is a technology award, whereas the Nobel Prize is a science award. Furthermore, the Nobel Prize is awarded for basic research, but the Millennium Prize may be given to a recently conceived innovation which is still being developed.

Universities, research institutes, national scientific and engineering academies and high-tech companies around the world are eligible to nominate individuals or groups for the award. In accordance with the rules of the Millennium Prize Foundation, a proposal concerning the winner of the Millennium Technology Prize is made to the board of the foundation by the eight-member international selection committee, and the final decision on the prize winner is made by the board.

[edit] Selection Committee 2007–2008 (8 members)

[edit] Laureates

Year Inventor Invention Notes
2004 Tim Berners-Lee World Wide Web Inventor of the World Wide Web from United Kingdom, was announced on April 15, 2004 as the first laureate of the award. The Prize was presented to Berners-Lee at a ceremony in the Finlandia Hall in Helsinki by the President of Finland, Tarja Halonen on June 15, 2004. Selection committee studied 78 nominations from 22 countries for the 2004 prize.
2006 Shuji Nakamura LEDs Inventor of high brightness blue and white LEDs used in lighting, computer displays and new-generation DVDs, from California, U.S.A., was announced on June 15, 2006 as the second laureate of award. The Prize was presented to Nakamura at a ceremony in the Helsinki Exhibition Centre in Helsinki by the President of Finland on September 8, 2006. Selection committee studied 109 nominations from 32 countries for the 2006 prize.
2008 Robert Langer Innovative biomaterials Inventor of controlled drug release. “For his invention and development of innovative biomaterials for controlled drug release and tissue regeneration that have significantly improved human health.”

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] External links