The Millennium Technology Prize

• Awarded for life-enhancing technological innovation
• Reward €1 million
• Country: Finland
• Presented by Technology Academy Finland
• First awarded 2004
• Website millenniumprize.org

The Millennium Technology Prize (Finnish: Millennium-teknologiapalkinto) is one of the world's largest technology prizes. It is awarded once every two years by Technology Academy Finland, an independent foundation established by Finnish industries, academic institutions, and the state of Finland. The patron of the prize is the President of Finland. The Millennium Technology Prize is Finland's tribute to innovations for a better life. The aims of the prize are to promote technological research and Finland as a high-tech Nordic welfare state. The prize was inaugurated in 2004.

The Prize

The idea of the prize came originally from the Finnish academician Pekka Jauho, with American real estate investor and philanthropist Arthur J Collingsworth encouraging its establishment. The Prize celebrates innovations that have a favorable and sustainable impact on quality of life and well-being of people. The innovations also must have been applied in practice and stimulate further research and development. Compared to the Nobel Prize the Millennium Technology 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 Technology Prize may be given to a recently conceived innovation which is still being developed. The Millennium Technology Prize is not intended as a reward for lifetime achievement.

The Millennium Technology Prize is awarded by Technology Academy Finland (formerly Millennium Prize Foundation and Finnish Technology Award Foundation), established in 2002 by eight Finnish organisations supporting technological development and innovation. The prize sum is 1 million euros (~US$1.3 million). The Millennium Technology Prize is awarded every second year and its patron is the president of Finland.

Universities, research institutes, national scientific and engineering academies, high-tech companies, and other organizations around the world are eligible to nominate individuals or groups for the award. Nominations are accepted from any field except military technology. In accordance with the rules of the Technology Academy Finland, 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 of the foundation.

International Selection Committee (ISC)

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Technology_Prize

Laureates

• (Year, Inventor, Nationality, Invention)
• 2004 Tim Berners-Lee, United Kingdom, World Wide Web
• 2006 Shuji Nakamura 中村 修二, Japan (born) United States (citizen), Blue and white LEDs
• 2008 Robert Samuel Langer, Jr. (Grand Award winner), United States, Innovative biomaterials for controlled drug release and tissue regeneration
  • 2008 Alec Jeffreys (finalist and laureate), United Kingdom, DNA fingerprinting technique
  • 2008 Andrew James Viterbi (finalist and laureate), Italy (born) United States (citizen), Viterbi algorithm
  • 2008 Emmanuel Desurvire (finalist and laureate), France, Erbium doped fiber amplifier
  • 2008 Randy Giles (finalist and laureate), United States, Erbium doped fiber amplifier
  • 2008 David N. Payne (finalist and laureate), United Kingdom, Erbium doped fiber amplifier
• 2010 Michael Grätzel (Grand Award winner),  Switzerland, Dye-sensitized solar cells
  • 2010 Richard Friend (finalist and laureate),  United Kingdom, organic light-emitting diodes
  • 2010 Stephen Furber (finalist and laureate),  United Kingdom, ARM 32-bit RISC microprocessor
• 2012 Linus Torvalds,  Finland (born) United States (citizen), Linux kernel
• 2012 Shinya Yamanaka,  Japan, Induced pluripotent stem cell
• 2014 Stuart Parkin,  United Kingdom, Advances in magnetic storage capacity
• 2016 Frances Arnold,  United States, Directed evolution
• 2018 Tuomo Suntola,  Finland, Atomic layer deposition
• 2020 Shankar Balasubramanian,  UK, Next Generation DNA Sequencing
• 2020 David Klenerman,  UK, Next Generation DNA Sequencing
• 2022 Martin Green,  Australia, High-efficiency silicon solar cells