News For the first time since their inception in 1976, the Rolex Spirit of Enterprise awards this year feature more female prize winners than male.
Marking three decades since the inception of its international awards programme, Rolex named the winners of the 12th Rolex Awards for Enterprise. The Laureates - three women and two men - hail from Australia, France, India, Thailand and the United Kingdom. They join the 55 Laureates who, since 1976, have been singled out by the watchmaker for their innovative projects to change the world and make it a better place to live.
On October 25, each Laureate has received US$100,000 and a personally inscribed gold Rolex chronometer at a ceremony at the Esplanade Performing Arts Centre in Singapore. The five winners – selected by an independent panel of experts from nearly 1,700 applicants from 117 countries – have been recognized for their contributions to science, technology, the environment, exploration and cultural heritage.
The new Laureates are: Alexandra Lavrillier, a French ethnologist establishing a mobile school to preserve Siberian nomads’ cultural heritage; Brad Norman, an Australian environmentalist implementing a global photo-identification database for whale shark conservation; Pilai Poonswad, a Thai microbiology professor saving hornbills threatened by poaching and deforestation in southern Thailand; Chanda Shroff, an Indian woman setting up a mobile resource centre to showcase Kutchi embroidery and teach a new generation of artisans about this tradition; and Rory Wilson, a British zoologist testing a revolutionary energy-expenditure measuring device to help conserve wildlife.
"The Laureates demonstrate the unwavering spirit of enterprise that has underpinned the Rolex Awards since their beginning 30 years ago" said Patrick Heiniger, Chief Executive Officer of Rolex and Chairman of the Awards Selection Committee. "We at Rolex are gratified that we have been able to support these brave individuals who dare to do things differently to improve the human condition."
In addition to the prizes awarded to the 2006 Laureates, five Associate Laureates will each receive $50,000 and a steel-and-gold Rolex chronometer. These runners-up will be honoured at ceremonies in their own countries or regions in the months ahead. The 2006 Associate Laureates are Cristian Donoso (Chile), Zenón Gomel Apaza (Peru), Shafqat Hussain (Pakistan), Runa Khan Marre (Bangladesh) and Julien Meyer (France). Their projects range from revitalising and preserving whistled and drummed languages via the internet, to implementing an original insurance scheme to save the snow leopard in Pakistan and exploring western Patagonia by kayak as indigenous people did centuries ago.
This year’s Selection Committee, a voluntary panel of nine world-renowned scientists, educators, entrepreneurs, conservationists and explorers were eminently qualified to apply their own spirit of enterprise in judging the diverse projects presented to them. "The committee members and I were struck by the originality of thought put forth by the winners, by how these pioneers have broken new ground in an innovative, yet constructive way," commented Patrick Heiniger.
Joining Patrick Heiniger on the 2006 Selection Committee were: Dr Laretna T. Adishakti, Indonesian architect and founder of the Center for Heritage Conservation; Professor Denise Bradley, vice chancellor and president of the University of South Australia; Motoko Ishii, Japanese lighting designer; Erling Kagge, Norwegian polar explorer and mountaineer; Professor Tommy Koh, diplomat and patron of the arts from Singapore; William K. Reilly, American conservationist; Dr Luis Rojas Marcos, American professor of psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine; Mark Shuttleworth, South African technology entrepreneur and philanthropist; and Sir Magdi Habib Yacoub, British surgeon and founder of the Magdi Yacoub Institute.
On a final note, the Rolex Prize secretariat has already launched an appeal for nominations, inviting men and women imbued with a spirit of enterprise to enter the 13th edition of its biennial programme. Regional application deadlines are as follows: 31 May 2007 for Asia, the Pacific and the Americas; 30 September 2007 for Europe, the Near East and Africa.
November 07, 2006
