Information about 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.

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$ 1.35 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.

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.

Selection Committee (8 members) 2007 - 2008

• Chairman Dr. Marja Makarow, Professor of Applied Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Vice-Rector of the University of Helsinki (Finland).
• Dr. Bengt Nordén, Professor of Physical Chemistry at Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden)
• Dr. Jean-Claude Charpentier, President of the European Federation of Chemical Engineering and Director of Research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) (France).
• Dr. Mikko Hupa, Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Technology at the Åbo Akademi University in Turku (Finland)
• Dr. Bob Iannucci, Senior Vice President and Head of Nokia Research Center (Finland)
• Dr. Risto Nieminen, Academy Professor at Helsinki University of Technology and Director of COMP, a National Center for Excellence in Computational Nanoscience (Finland)
• Dr. V. S. Ramamurthy, Homi Bhabha Chair Professor at the Inter-University Accelerator Center in New Delhi (India)
• Dr. Henry T. Yang, Professor and Chancellor of the University of California, Santa Barbara (USA).

Laureates

2004

Tim Berners-Lee, 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, 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

Nomination period for 2008 prize starts in April 2007. 99 nominations were made for the 2008 prize.

See also

• Nobel Prize
• Takeda Award
• Nevanlinna Prize
• Kyoto Prize
• Schock Prize
• List of prizes, medals, and awards

References

• "Top prize for 'light' inventor" by BBC News, September 8, 2006, retrieved September 8, 2006
• "Shedding light on the world" by Jane Qui, BBC News, September 8, 2006, retrieved September 9, 2006
• "Professor gets $1.2 million tech prize" by Matti Huuhtanen, Associated Press, September 8, 2006, retrieved September 9, 2006
• "Berners-Lee wins inaugural technology prize" by David Legard, IDG News Service, April 16, 2004, retrieved September 9, 2006
• "Millennium Technology Prize goes to semiconductor research" by Soili Helminen, TEKES, June 15, 2006, retrieved September 9, 2006
• "New honour for the web's inventor" by BBC News, April 15, 2004, retrieved September 9, 2006
• "2006 Millennium Technology prize awarded to UCSB'S Shuji Nakamura" by Paul Desruisseaux, University of California, Santa Barbara, June 15, 2006, retrieved September 9, 2006
• "Nakamura collects Millennium Technology Prize" Helsingin Sanomat, International edition, September 11, 2006, retrieved September 14, 2006

External link

• The Millennium Prize Foundation - Official site