Gordon Moore, whose Law is so famous, was honored at tonight's Tech Award ceremony. He received the James C. Morgan Global Humanitarian Award. In his acceptance speech he mentioned that he had helped cause some of the problems facing the earth, and through his philanthropy he hoped to help solve some of them. Environmental causes seem to be his foundation's major focus.
The winners of the $50,000 cash prizes in each category included:
Economic Development: blueEnergy San Francisco, California, is working on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua to install wind power systems to bring electricity to an area where 75% of the population has none. (Mathias Craig pictured at left.)
Environment: Fundacion Terram, Santiago, Chile. Chile is a major exporter of farmed salmon, but the excess nitrogen is affecting other fish and abalone. This project uses kelp to absorb the wastes from aquaculture and gives indigenous communities a source of income as they raise and harvest the seaweed.
Health: Diagnostic Development Unit-Univ. of Cambridge & Diagnostics for the Real World. They invented technology to test for infectious diseases quickly and in conditions of extreme temperature. For instance, there are dual litmus tests for both Hepatitis B and HIV.
Education: TakingITGlobal, Toronto, Canada. The team used open source tools and designed an online platform to involve youth for social change. At present they have 150,000 members in 192 countries. Because many young people in other countries share computers in cybercafes and school, news about the site traveled by word of mouth.
Equality: Devendra Raj Mehta in Jaipur, India, engineers low-cost prosthetic limbs for amputees. These are provided at no cost, and most are able to return to work in a couple of days and have the ability to run, ride a bicycle, or drive a car. The Jaipur Foot project has been replicated in other countries as well.
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