THE 2012 LAUREATESpreview.thenewsmarket.com/Previews/RLEX/DocumentAssets/...The Rolex Awards for...

THE 2012 LAUREATES

©2012 - Rolex SA

Sergei BEREZNUK RUSSIA© Rolex Awards/Marc Latzel

Mark KENDALL AUSTRALIA, UNITED KINGDOM© Rolex Awards/Julian Kingma

Aggrey OTIENO KENYA© Rolex Awards/Tomas Bertelsen

Barbara BLOCK UNITED STATES© Rolex Awards/Bart Michiels

Erika CUÉLLAR BOLIVIA© Rolex Awards/Thierry Grobet

To download photos and information about the 2012 winners, visit:

www.rolexawards.com/press

Sergei BEREZNUK

BORN28 September 1960

NATIONALITYRussia

PROFESSION/JOBConservationist, director of the Phoenix Fund

PROJECT LOCATIONRussia – Russian Far East

PROJECT SUMMARYThe Russian Far East is home to 95 per cent of the remaining population of the Amur, the biggest of the world’s tigers (also known as the Siberian tiger), which weighs on average 200kg. Today, an estimated 350 to 500 of this subspecies (Panthera tigris altaica) roam the frontier region bordering China and the Sea of Japan. Although sustained conservation efforts over recent years have moved the Amur tigers from “critically endangered” to “endangered” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List, they still remain at risk – mainly due to poaching.

The species (Panthera tigris) worldwide now numbers an estimated 4,000 adult individuals in the wild (down from 100,000 in 1900).

For the past 17 years, Sergei Bereznuk, a staunch Russian conservationist and ecologist, has been working valiantly to save the Amur tiger. Based on his experience since 1995 with a tiger anti-poaching brigade in the Primorsky Krai, the Russian Far East province commonly known as Primorye, Bereznuk is convinced that saving the Amur tiger depends on both the efficiency of anti-poaching measures and the education of the local people, two elements at the core of his Rolex Award-winning project. Moreover, he considers the Amur tiger as a powerful driver for the general conservation of its ecosystem, the taiga forest.

As director of the Phoenix Fund, a small, environmental NGO that he has headed for 12 years, Bereznuk and his team of six people are carrying out an impressive range of activities to preserve the Amur tiger over a territory of 166,000 km2. These include support of anti-poaching units, awareness-raising among local people, reversing habitat reduction due to fires and logging and resolution of human-animal conflicts, along with providing compensation for damage and monitoring invasive industrial projects in the region.

Protect the last Siberian tigers in Russia’s Far East

Programme OverviewThe Rolex Awards for Enterprise were created to foster a spirit of enterprise and advance human knowledge and well-being. They support pioneering work in five areas:

• science and health• applied technology• exploration and discovery• the environment• cultural heritage

Winners are innovators who typically work outside the mainstream and often have limited access to traditional funding. Rather than reward past achievements, the Rolex Awards provide financial assistance and recognition to individuals embarking on new ventures or carrying out ongoing projects.

Grants of 100,000 Swiss francs are awarded to five Laureates and 50,000 Swiss francs to five Young Laureates. The Young Laureates Programme was introduced in 2009 to encourage the next generation of leaders. The grants must be used to complete projects. All winners also receive a Rolex chronometer.

Selection ProcessWinners are chosen by a Jury of international experts who themselves embody the spirit of enterprise that the Awards seek to promote. The Jury is international, interdisciplinary and independent. A new panel is convened for each series of Awards, which are presented every two years.

Rolex receives as many as 3,000 applications from more than 150 countries for each series. The Awards are open to anyone of any age, nationality or background. The applications are analysed by a team of scientific researchers before being presented to the Jury.

Projects are judged on their feasibility, originality, potential for sustained impact and, above all, on the candidates’ spirit of enterprise. Applicants must show how they will use a Rolex Award to leverage the impact of their projects, and how, through initiative and ingenuity, they will benefit mankind.

Fact Sheet

T H E R O L E X A W A R D S F O R E N T E R P R I S EP.O. Box 1311 - 1211 Geneva 26 - Switzerland - Tel. +41 (0)22 302 22 00 - Fax +41 (0)22 302 25 85 - Email [email protected]

rolexawards.com / young.rolexawards.com

Poaching remains the principal threat to the tigers’ survival. The animals are killed in retaliation, mainly for loss of cattle and wild prey and as hunting trophies. There is also demand for their skin, bones and body parts, used primarily in Chinese traditional medicine. Despite international laws banning the sale of tiger parts there is a lucrative market that fuels poaching. In their campaign to reduce the slaughter, Bereznuk and the Vladivostok-based Phoenix Fund provide anti-poaching teams with software – the Management Information System (MIST) – developed specifically for this purpose by the Wildlife Conservation Society. Up-to-date, relevant and timely information is an integral part of effective protected area management.

Bereznuk provides anti-poaching units with fuel, spare parts for their patrolling vehicles, incentive payments, as well as training. With the Phoenix Fund’s support, these teams could improve their efficiency in terms of the number of arrests, prosecutions and influence on poachers.

He is conscious, however, that these methods are not a solution in the long term and so he has developed extensive educational and outreach activities. Phoenix Fund-supported educators work with children, creating educational materials, films, competitions and eco-events, most notably the annual Tiger Day Festivals in Vladivostok and other regional centres, and generally encouraging villagers and young people to treasure the planet’s wildlife. For Bereznuk, the Tiger Day Festival is a powerful motivational tool.

Bereznuk’s project is the first example of cutting-edge, anti-poaching methods and environmental awareness-raising activities in Russia’s Far East. The Phoenix Fund, while partnering with other major environmental organizations, is the only Russian organization conducting and supporting these programmes in the region. It has strong community ties, cultural sensitivity and an extended network of local field workers.

A modest and pragmatic man who has overcome major odds in a highly challenging environment, Bereznuk has, with great tenacity, begun to change attitudes and empower a young team of collaborators to sustain the Amur tiger population.

His Rolex Award for Enterprise will provide funding for his project in 2013 and, significantly, focus world attention on his efforts to protect this flagship species.

PROFILEA courageous man who believes that conserving the Amur tiger is possible through extended collaboration, awareness-raising and education, Sergei Bereznuk has made his mark on the Russian Far East Province, the region where he was born. Bereznuk received a degree in engineering from Vladivostok’s polytechnic institute in 1982 before beginning work in the import-export sector. The upheavals in the Soviet Union forced him to rethink his career and, in the mid-1990s, he focused his longstanding love for the natural world on the challenge of saving the Amur tiger. He served as deputy director of Inspection Tiger, an anti-poaching group, from 1995 to 1999, before joining the Phoenix Fund and becoming its director the following year. Under his leadership, the organization has grown into a leading conservation NGO in Primorye province.

CONTACTSTel: +7 4232 205 048Mobile: +7 9242 426 651Email: [email protected], [email protected]

Barbara BLOCK

BORN25 April 1958

NATIONALITYUnited States

PROFESSION/JOBProfessor, Marine Biology

PROJECT LOCATIONWest coast of the United States

PROJECT SUMMARYLarge marine predators such as sharks and tunas are essential to maintaining the delicate balance of our ocean ecosystems, but overfishing, habitat destruction and pollution have caused reductions of populations worldwide.

Measures advocated by scientists to reverse this decline include the creation of large marine protected areas in the open ocean that preserve feeding and breeding grounds. A major challenge has been to identify the best locations for these sanctuaries, since these species are highly migratory and difficult to follow.

Barbara Block, a professor of marine biology, has developed innovative electronic tagging techniques that enable following fish beneath the sea. In the late 1990s, she helped develop the first pop-up satellite archival tag, a device that detaches itself from the fish on a pre-programmed date and floats to the surface of the sea where it transmits archived data via satellite.

From 2000 to 2010, Block was co-chief scientist for the Tagging of Pacific Predators (TOPP) programme, part of the Census of Marine Life, an 80-nation endeavour to assess the diversity and abundance of life in the oceans.

Through deployment of more than 4,000 electronic tags, 23 species of large predators from six groups (tunas, sharks, turtles, whales, seals and seabirds) were studied in the waters of the North Pacific. The TOPP scientists identified three marine “hotspots” where nutrient-rich waters form attractive hunting grounds for predators, which feast on abundant krill, sardines, anchovies, salmon and squid. The supply of natural prey in these hotspots ensures that populations of white sharks, salmon sharks, shortfin mako sharks and some tunas remain for a significant portion of time each year and return after each migration.

Track large marine predators at their “cafés” and protect the oceans








Fact Sheet



Block’s aim is to build the technology that will enable monitoring of these ocean hotspots and to engage the public on the plight of marine predators that roam along the west coast of North America – a crucial prelude to their conservation. Her team conducts “conservation oceanography” incorporating the latest advances in sensor technology, ocean observing systems and computational methods to provide resource managers and policy-makers with data on the sustainability of both exploited and protected marine predators.

Block considers public outreach a fundamental part of her work, and is committed to providing science-based advocacy for sustainable fisheries at national and international policy levels and in the media. Block led the Tag A Giant Campaign an effort to place more than 1,000 electronic tags in giant Atlantic bluefin tuna so that the plight of this highly exploited fish could be recognized. Block’s ultimate goal in the Pacific is the creation of a large, marine UNESCO World Heritage site off the Californian shore to protect the open ocean wilderness the TOPP team discovered. Her team’s research paints an eye-opening picture of neighbourhoods, migratory highways, hotspots and homecoming gatherings just off the populous western coastline of North America – a “Blue Serengeti”.

With the receipt of a Rolex Award, Block will make progress towards protecting this area through the creation of a network of marine “predator cafés”, or biological ocean observatories, which will be distributed along the Californian coastline to monitor the animals and transmit data on their movements to a satellite or cell network for relay to the lab.

Block’s team will tag sharks and tunas with relatively inexpensive, long-lasting acoustic tags that communicate to mobile and fixed listening stations. Establishing the capacity to listen at ocean hotspots will allow Block to conduct an ongoing census of the sharks and tunas as they come and go on their annual migratory cycles, providing the ability to monitor these populations from year to year. A website and mobile application will allow the general public to engage with these important species via the “predator cafés”.

Most conservation efforts and advocacy to date have been devoted to land-based ecosystems. Block’s passion for combining science research with modern technology will allow everyone to engage with and help preserve the lives of the predators of the open sea.

PROFILEOne of the world’s leading marine scientists, Barbara Block demonstrates tireless determination and inventiveness, pushing forward technology, as well as collaborating with other disciplines to transform ocean research. Her commitment goes beyond the science, however, since she has applied her expertise to critical worldwide conservation issues such as the sustainable management of commercial tuna fisheries. Her work stems from a strong desire to preserve the oceans and foster their care, encouraging the public to change consumption behaviour and influence policies. Block’s commitment to public engagement was evident when she helped her colleagues at the Monterey Bay Aquarium bring a school of bluefin tuna behind glass so that 2 million people a year could see the beauty of their form, colour and locomotion.

CONTACTSTel: +1 831 655 6225 (Press liaison, Dr Randy Kochevar)Mobile: +1 831 594 2071Tel (office): +1 831 655 6236 Email: [email protected]

Erika CUÉLLAR

BORN9 December 1971

NATIONALITYBolivia

PROFESSION/JOBConservation biologist

PROJECT LOCATIONGran Chaco region of Bolivia, Argentina and Paraguay

PROJECT SUMMARYThe largest of Bolivia’s national parks, the Kaa-Iya del Gran Chaco, boasts the unlikely combination of South America’s hottest, driest weather and 70 species of large mammals, including jaguars, pumas and giant armadillos, living in the largest protected tropical dry forest in the world.

This harsh and inhospitable environment has been the workplace of scientist Erika Cuéllar for more than a decade.

Cuéllar has spearheaded participatory conservation with the indigenous Guaraní people who live on the boundaries of the park. She has worked towards improving grassland management and local capacity building by training local people to take ownership of the conservation of their habitat.

Encouraged by her successes in the national park, Cuéllar’s sights are now set on the wider Gran Chaco region, which spans parts of Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. The Gran Chaco counts a variety of indigenous tribes, nomadic hunters, gatherers, fishing communities, farmers and cattle ranchers as its human inhabitants. The forests and scrublands are also home to 3,400 plant species, 500 bird and 150 mammal species, many of which are unique to the region.

But for more than a century, the Gran Chaco’s natural wealth has been systematically eroded. Species’ habitats have been disrupted by a military zone resulting from a longstanding boundary dispute between Bolivia and Paraguay. Construction of a gas pipeline from Bolivia to Brazil, extensive cattle ranching and agricultural encroachment, as well as exploitation of groundwater for irrigation have also taken a toll on the Gran Chaco’s rich wildlife.

Train local people in three countries to protect the Gran Chaco








Fact Sheet



A notable casualty of these man-made factors has been the guanaco, the wild ancestor of domesticated llamas, which Charles Darwin described as “an elegant animal with a long slender neck and fine legs”. An estimated 500,000 of these cinnamon-coloured animals roam the vast plains of the Patagonian steppe but only a fraction of these persist in the Gran Chaco, represented by three isolated and remnant populations in Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina, each numbering less than 200 individuals.

In 2007, to help protect this species and its habitat, Cuéllar devised a course to train members of three ethnic groups native to the Gran Chaco (Guaraní, Ayoreode and Chiquitano) as parabiologists. In conservation, parabiology is accepted as a powerful and sustainable approach, since local people learn scientific methods and ultimately gain the skills required to lead and maintain environmental protection.

As native inhabitants, parabiologists are also an influential means of conveying the value of conservation to indigenous communities, and the scheme has received national and international attention.

Cuéllar now wants to extend her approach in Argentina and Paraguay and formalize the model to make conservation a viable long-term local employment option. She also aims to include the parabiologists in policy-making, by involving them in a tri-national Gran Chaco conservation strategy. The guanaco will serve as the flagship species but ultimately the parabiologists will take responsibility for the wider conservation of their local areas.

Cuéllar has already proved herself as an inspirational and innovative negotiator who has gained the respect of indigenous people and political leaders alike. Her Rolex Award for Enterprise recognizes these attributes and will support this extension of Cuéllar’s participatory approach to preserving one of South America’s last truly wild places.

PROFILEKnown locally as “the biologist of the guanacos”, Erika Cuéllar is one of Bolivia’s few recognized experts in wildlife conservation. Having completed two postgraduate degrees in the United Kingdom, at the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology and Oxford University, she returned to Bolivia to ensure the sustainability of the natural legacy of her Guaraní forebears. As a woman in a patriarchal environment, Cuéllar has faced many difficulties to be accepted by indigenous people and cattle ranchers. Now, she is known and admired nationally for her fierce dedication and mental and physical strength. She has founded two Bolivian NGOs focused on conservation and is coordinator of the Bolivian Committee for the Species Survival Commission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

CONTACTSMobile: + 591 7092 9604Email: [email protected]

Mark KENDALL

BORN16 April 1972

NATIONALITYAustralia and United Kingdom

PROFESSION/JOBBio-engineer, professor at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, University of Queensland, Australia

PROJECT LOCATIONAustralia, Papua New Guinea (PNG)

PROJECT SUMMARYMark Kendall is developing an inexpensive and highly efficient way to reduce the annual death toll of millions of people worldwide from infectious diseases. Many of these fatalities can be prevented by vaccines, but the traditional syringe-and-needle method – invented in 1853 – is holding vaccines back. First, this method injects vaccine into muscle, which has few immune cells, missing our immune “sweet spot”. It is expensive and presents numerous difficulties – with vaccines requiring refrigeration in many countries where electricity supplies are uncertain.

With the “NanopatchTM” that Professor Kendall is developing at a cutting-edge bio-engineering research institute at the University of Queensland, in Australia, a host of problems linked to the traditional needle and syringe will be swept away.

An eminent bio-engineer with an impressive record as an innovative scientist during his eight years in a senior post at Oxford University in the United Kingdom, Kendall was persuaded by the University of Queensland to return to his native Brisbane six years ago to be one of the research leaders at the new Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology where he is developing the Nanopatch.

His Rolex Award should allow Kendall to fast-track development of the Nanopatch for the developing world, where most deaths from infectious diseases occur.

The Nanopatch, which is about a square centimetre in size, places vaccine directly into areas where immune cells are abundant. Most current vaccines are injected by syringe, requiring a relatively large dose of vaccine per shot – and raising potential problems with needle injuries, contamination and disposal.

Revolutionize vaccinations to save millions of lives








Fact Sheet



The syringe-free method being developed by Kendall uses an applicator which propels the Nanopatch and its microprojections – painlessly – onto a superficial layer of the skin where target immune cells are most numerous. The process does not draw blood, so the risk of infection is greatly reduced.

The Nanopatch is coated with dry vaccine, so no refrigeration is required. This, together with lower vaccine doses, drastically reduces all costs, including transport. In the long term, Nanopatches could probably be administered by community workers or teachers, thus avoiding the need for trained medical staff to be present.

Kendall and his team of researchers in Brisbane have successfully tested the Nanopatch on mice. With funds from his Rolex Award, he will now focus on testing and finessing the patch for the developing world, beginning with a mock trial, using Nanopatches without vaccine in Papua New Guinea to test how well they perform in developing world conditions.

After refining and improving the Nanopatch further, Kendall aims to launch clinical trials in PNG to vaccinate women against human papilloma virus (HPV), which can lead to cervical cancer, a leading cause of death in young women in the developing world.

Professor Kendall already has a strong record of achievement, having helped pioneer an earlier skin targeting technology called the Gene Gun (firing vaccine particles to the skin using rocket technology) – from idea through to product – during his tenure at Oxford. If trials of his Nanopatch are successful, it is likely to be on the market in 10 years and vaccines will be adapted for use with the device.

Described in the Australian media as a “paradigm shift” and “game-changing technology” in the field of vaccination, the Nanopatch has the potential to revolutionize the process of administering vaccines, making the process far easier, cheaper and much less intimidating for the many people who fear needles. Millions of lives are likely to be saved thanks to the ingenuity and determination of Mark Kendall and his team.

PROFILEMark Kendall has worked at the interface between academia and industry for 14 years, leading a group of young research scientists who are applying technological advances to find practical applications that will make life better for millions of people around the world. Professor Kendall’s special area of research is the delivery of immunotherapeutics, such as vaccines, to the skin without the use of a needle or syringe. He is one of the leading scientists at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology. He joined the AIBN from the University of Oxford, where he was associate director of the PowderJect Centre for Gene and Drug Delivery Research, University Research Lecturer in Engineering Science and a Lecturer at Magdalen College. He has published 205 book chapters, journal articles and conference papers, many of them in highly respected scientific journals. He has 96 patents to his credit, with nine more pending.

CONTACTSProfessor Mark Kendall (primary contact; travelling abroad)Tel: +61 431162391Email: [email protected]

Ms Anne Ewing (secondary contact; Brisbane Australia)Tel: +61 7 334 64265Email: [email protected]

Aggrey OTIENO

BORN28 January 1978

NATIONALITYKenya

PROFESSION/JOBExecutive director of Pambazuko Mashinani, Nairobi, Kenya

PROJECT LOCATIONKorogocho slum – Nairobi, Kenya

PROJECT SUMMARYKorogocho, Nairobi’s fourth-largest slum, is home to an estimated 200,000 people in an area of only 1.5km2, which is troubled by widespread insecurity, substandard sanitation and deep poverty. An estimated 300 women experience post-partum haemorrhage and 200 newborn babies die there every year due to the lack of obstetric medical facilities and a means of getting to hospital, as well as the fact that the local birth attendants need assistance during emergencies.

In Korogocho, the maternal mortality ratio is roughly 700 women out of 100,000, compared with 13 out of 100,000 in the United States.

After studying in the United States, Aggrey Otieno returned to the slum, his birthplace, to improve the health of his community by empowering its people. With his knowledge of the area, Otieno, who has gained a well-deserved reputation as a valiant champion of the poor and vulnerable residents of Korogocho, is well placed to drive forward his project to build a telemedicine centre with a 24-hour, on-call doctor and van, thereby helping to prevent many deaths.

Under the auspices of the non-profit organization Pambazuko Mashinani – of which he is founder and executive director – Otieno will use his Rolex Award funds to train birth attendants to recognize when complications are occurring so that they can alert staff at the centre by text message when an emergency arises. These qualified workers and doctors will give instant medical advice and, if needed, dispatch a van to transport the woman to hospital.

From his previous work in areas such as TB prevention, Otieno understands the need to develop a complementary, outreach component to raise awareness of maternal health issues, including hygiene, family planning and nutrition among thousands of local women.

Build a telemedicine centre in a slum to save the lives of mothers and babies








Fact Sheet



To accomplish this, he and his colleagues will create educational videos, which will be shown in hospital waiting rooms, and produce programmes, which will be disseminated through text messages and community radio. Otieno hopes to target 25,000 women with his campaign. His project not only has the potential of saving the lives of women and newborns, it should improve the health and well-being of all mothers and children in the slum.

The Rolex Award will also be used to build the telemedicine centre. A doctor will be available at all times, with a roster of five medics needed to cover all the shifts. A driver will also be on hand to transport patients, particularly at night when travelling in the slum is not safe. The centre, along with the awareness-raising campaign, will take Otieno further in his implementation of Pambazuko Mashinani’s objective – to create a society where the poor are empowered to bring about transformative change in their own lives.

Otieno’s intention is to replicate the project over five years to cover the other slums of Nairobi. This would allow the service to reach an estimated 2,200 women and 1,500 newborns requiring urgent care each year.

PROFILEAdmired by his peers for his vision and determination, Aggrey Otieno has overcome the challenges of his background to become the first person from Korogocho to attain a Master’s degree. In 2011, he received a Master of Arts in communications and development and a diploma in African community health from Ohio University in the United States. In the same year, he founded the grass-roots organization Pambazuko Mashinani and was the recipient of an award from the Clinton Global Initiative University and funding from the Ford Foundation Fellowships Program. An advocate of a variety of social causes for nearly a decade, Otieno was motivated to tackle the high rates of maternal and neonatal mortality in Nairobi’s slums when his sister developed serious obstetric problems while in labour at home at night. He is a role model who is mobilizing people and developing strong networks to help his community.

CONTACTSTel: +254 (0)20 300 4406/ +254 (0)20 387 6502Mobile: +254 787 900 162Email: [email protected]

Habiba Bouhamed Chaabouni (Tunisia) has carried out pioneering research on genetic disorders. A medical doctor, she is a professor of medical genetics and director of the Laboratory of Human Genetics Research at the Faculty of Medicine of Tunis and head of the Congenital and Hereditary Diseases department at Tunis’ Charles Nicolle Hospital.

Gururaj “Desh” Deshpande (India/United States) is founder and chairman of several innovative technology companies, among them Sycamore Networks. Currently co-chairman of the U.S. National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Indian-born global philanthropist started the Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation at MIT, where he is a member of the board.

Sylvia Earle (United States), one of the world’s most eminent oceanographers and deep-ocean explorers, has logged nearly 7,000 hours underwater and led more than 100 expeditions, many of them record-breaking, over more than four decades. Today, she is an explorer-in-residence at the National Geographic Society, a lecturer and author of such books as The World is Blue.

Steve Jones (United Kingdom) is a distinguished biologist and prize-winning author recognized worldwide for his contributions to the public’s understanding of science. A professor emeritus at University College London, he previously headed the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, focusing his research on subjects from the genetics of snails to human evolution.

Calestous Juma (Kenya), an authority on sustainable development, is professor of the Practice of International Development at Harvard where he directs the Science, Technology and Globalization Project, as well as the Gates Foundation-funded Agricultural Innovation in Africa Project. Juma recently published The New Harvest: Agricultural Innovation in Africa.

Tayeb A. Kamali (UAE) is vice chancellor of the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) – the UAE’s largest institution of higher learning. He has spearheaded education, training, research and applied technology programmes, including entrepreneurship and e-learning initiatives in the Middle East for more than two decades.

Amyr Klink (Brazil) has set world records with his maritime exploits. These feats, featured in his many books, are the first single-handed crossing of the South Atlantic Ocean, the first solo wintering in the Antarctic, and the first non-stop, solo circumnavigation of Antarctica. Klink is today a polar consultant and motivational speaker.

Jury Members2012 Rolex Awards for Enterprise








Fact Sheet



Antonio Machado-Allison (Venezuela) is a global expert on animal biosystematics and an acknowledged authority on freshwater fish, in particular the piranha. The renowned zoologist, recipient of Venezuela’s Order of José Maria Vargas, is currently editor of the Bulletin of the Venezuelan Academy of Sciences.

Keiko Nakamura (Japan), a pioneering life scientist, is celebrated for her groundbreaking ideas concerning the relationship between the biological sciences and society – a field she coined as biohistory, which helps interpret “the grand story of life”. She is the author of several books, including From the Window of Biohistory.

Subramaniam Ramadorai (India), acknowledged for putting Indian IT on the map, is well known for establishing Asia’s biggest software and services company, Tata Consultancy Services, of which he is now vice chairman. Recipient of India’s Padma Bhushan honour, he was recently appointed to the Indian prime minister’s National Council on Skill Development, with the rank of cabinet minister.

Gerhard Schmitt (Switzerland), an expert on artificial intelligence and computer-aided architectural design, is a professor of information architecture and senior vice president for international institutional affairs at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH). Recipient of the European Cultural Award for Science, he currently heads the Singapore-ETH Centre for Global Environmental Sustainability.

Mahrukh Tarapor (India/United States), one of the most widely respected international museum professionals, served for many years in senior positions at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, organizing exhibitions worldwide. The Indian-born, American scholar is now a consultant working for major cultural institutions and a museum advisor to the Indian government.

Rolex will open applications for the next round of the Rolex Awards for Enterprise on 30 June 2012. The 2014 Awards will be devoted to young candidates aged between 18 and 30 years.

The first set of Awards devoted to Young Laureates took place in 2009 with the idea of supporting visionary young men and women at a critical juncture in their careers.

Applicants are asked to submit projects that tackle the world’s most pressing issues in five areas: science and health, applied technology, exploration, the environment, and cultural preservation.

Candidates must demonstrate originality, feasibility, potential for sustained impact and, above all, their own spirit of enterprise. Projects are examined rigorously to choose those that best meet the criteria and an independent Jury selects five winners from a shortlist.

Each winner is granted 50,000 Swiss francs over a period of two years. In addition, Rolex ensures each Laureate receives access to its network of more than 100 past Laureates, as well as the benefit of international publicity through media coverage and the Rolex Awards website.

Candidates are invited to apply through the website: www.rolexawards.com/about/apply.

Applications Open for 2014 Rolex Awards








Fact Sheet






Grants of 100,000 Swiss francs are awarded to Laureates and 50,000 Swiss francs to Young Laureates. All winners also receive a Rolex chronometer. The grants must be used to complete projects.

A cycle of awards devoted to Young Laureates was introduced in 2009 to encourage the next generation of leaders.


Rolex receives as many as 3,000 applications from more than 150 countries for each series. The Awards are open to individuals of any nationality or background. The applications are analysed by a team of scientific researchers before being presented to the Jury.


Fact Sheet


rolexawards.com








Fact Sheet



History of the Rolex AwardsThe Rolex Awards for Enterprise were established in 1976 by the late André J. Heiniger, former chairman of Rolex, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Oyster chronometer, the world’s first waterproof watch.

In the 36 years since the Awards for Enterprise were founded, Rolex has been inspired by the work of a global network of visionaries. Winning projects range from technological and scientific inventions to protecting rare and endangered species – from the tiny seahorse to the giant whale shark – and habitats, from the Amazon rainforest to forest ecosystems in Sri Lanka. They also focus on reviving time-honoured practices, from agriculture in the Andes and Africa, to traditional healing in the Himalayas, along with providing safe, affordable water, energy, shelter, food and medicine in developing countries.

Rolex PhilanthropySince it was founded a century ago, Rolex has championed individual excellence and achievement. In the 1950s, the company began assuring the reliability of its watches by asking leaders in sports and exploration to test them under extreme conditions – from the summit of Mount Everest to 10,000 metres underwater.

During the past three decades, the company has continued to recognize excellence through two unique philanthropic programmes: from 1976, the Rolex Awards for Enterprise, and, from 2002, the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative.

The Arts Initiative is a global programme that pairs emerging artists with masters in dance, film, literature, music, theatre and the visual arts for a year of intensive collaboration. The aim is to help ensure that artistic excellence is passed on to the next generation.

By fostering innovation in science, exploration, conservation and the arts, both the Rolex Awards and the Rolex Arts Initiative advance the work of individuals who exemplify the vision, ingenuity and excellence that define the Rolex brand.

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