Awards Presented in Aerospace, Communications, Electronics, Entertainment, Environment, Health and Transportation - with $100,000 Prize to Landmine Detector
New York, NY — June 12, 2001 — Discover magazine announced today the winners of its 2001 Innovation Awards. The Awards, presented annually, honor scientists whose groundbreaking work will change the way we live. "The Awards focus on cutting-edge technologies that have potential for far-reaching impact and are relevant to our daily lives," said Stephen Petranek, Editor-in-Chief at Discover. This year's Awards recognize extraordinary achievements in Aerospace, Communications, Electronics, Entertainment, Environment, Health, and Transportation.
The Awards were presented at a ceremony in New York City sponsored by the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation, with additional support from Pfizer, Inc. The ceremony was hosted by popular television personalities David Hartman and Antonio Mora and featured such well-known presenters as Penn & Teller.
Each of the Discover Awards winners received a cash prize of $5,000 courtesy of Pfizer, Inc. and is featured in the July issue of Discover. The winners were selected by Discover's editors and a panel of eminent advisors, based on nominations made by leading scientists in a wide range of fields, as well as by other readers of the magazine.
From among the Discover Awards nominees, the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation also selected the winner of its $100,000 Christopher Columbus Foundation Award, which was also presented at the ceremony.
Click here for an additional press release on this award.
The Discover Magazine Innovation Awards winners are as follows:
Aerospace: Mini-Magnetosphere Plasma Propulsion (M2P2) - "Getting to Mars, Jupiter and beyond on free power and in less time"
Dr. Robert Winglee, Associate Chair, Department of Earth & Space Sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA was honored for his development of M2P2.
Communications: Electroholography™ - "Making the Internet truly as fast as light"
Dr. Aharon Agranat, Founder & Director at Trellis Photonics in Columbia, MD helped develop this technology, which eliminates the need for information to be converted from photons to electrons and back in the Internet pipeline.
Editors' Choice: Helinx - "Blood without fear"
Dr. Laurence M. Corash, Co-founder & Chief Medical Officer, Cerus Corporation in Concord, CA Dr. Corash was honored for his development of the Helinx technology, which will make the world's blood supply safe from both known and unknown viruses and pathogens.
Electronics: Printed Inorganic Chips - "Cheap, Really Cheap, Chips"
Dr. Joseph Jacobson, Associate Professor at MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, MA was honored for his innovation, which enables computer chips to be produced from desktop computers at a fraction of the current cost.
Entertainment: MagicBook - "3-D desktop virtual reality"
Mark Billinghurst, Research Associate at University of Washington in Seattle, WA was instrumental in developing this hardware and software that fosters a 3-D desktop virtual reality experience. A surgical resident could, for example, beam a virtual body into a virtual operating room in order to practice a coronary bypass.
Environment: NatureWorks™ PLA - "Plastic made from corn"
Dr. Patrick Gruber, Vice President & Chief Technology Officer at Cargill Dow LLC in Minnetonka, MN invented NatureWorks™ PLA, a technology that uses corn instead of petroleum to produce plastic.
Health: Combined Optical and Magnetic Resonance Microscope - "Studying cells in real time"
Dr. Robert Wind, Scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, WA helped develop a combined microscope that can study live cells at the same time with two completely different microscopic techniques. Findings based on this new technology are likely to have a profound impact on improving the detection and diagnosis of diseased cells and in evaluating a patient's response to chemotherapy.
Transportation: Saab Combustion Control (SCC) Engine - "A car that digests its own pollutants"
Eric Olofsson, Combustion and Gas Exchange Manager at Saab Automobile AB in Södertälje, Sweden was honored for the SCC innovation which reduces carbon dioxide and hydrocarbon emissions by 10 percent and other emissions by 75 percent.
$100,000 Christopher Columbus Foundation Award: Timed Neutron Detector - "Saving lives"
Dr. Richard Craig, Scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, WA is responsible for the Timed Neutron Detector technology, a landmine detector which finds plastic and metal mines by detecting the hydrogen atoms that comprise the enormously destructive war devicesClick here for an additional press release on this award.
Discover Magazine, which reaches more than 6 million readers monthly, is a manual for the future, bringing new technologies to light, examining medical breakthroughs and exploring the how and why behind science. It is where today's readers turn to learn about scientific discoveries that affect every aspect of their lives. Founded in 1979, Discover is published by Buena Vista Magazines, a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide. Discover.com receives up to 3 million impressions per month.
For additional information on the Awards winners, please contact: Virginia Anagnos - Goodman Media - 212-576-2700 - virginia@goodmanmedia.com
