• Topics   • Events   • News & Press Release   • Bulletin   • Proceedings		THE TAKEDA FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF THE TAKEDA AWARD 2001 TO HONOR ACHIEVEMENTS IN ENGINEERING Tokyo, JAPAN September 11, 2001 The Takeda Foundation has announced the winners of this year's Takeda Awards. The Takeda Awards are presented annually to individuals who have made outstanding achievements in creating and applying new engineering intellect and knowledge in three fields: Social/Economic Well-Being (information and electronics), Individual/Humanity Well-Being (life sciences), and World Environmental Well-Being(environment). One award is given in each of these three fields. The monetary value for each award is 100 million yen. The ceremony will take place in December 4, 2001 in Tokyo, Japan. The technical achievement honored by the Takeda Award 2001 Techno-Entrepreneurial Achievements for Social/Economic Well-Being is "the origination and the advancement of open development models for system software - open architecture, free software and open source software." The prize is awarded jointly to Ken Sakamura (University of Tokyo), Richard M. Stallman (Free Software Foundation) and Linus Torvalds (Transmeta Corporation). Ken Sakamura is honored for developing and promoting the TRON open architecture, a real-time operating system specification for embedded systems. Richard M. Stallman is honored for starting the free software movement and leading the development of the GNU operating system. Linus Torvalds is honored for developing the Linux operating system kernel by the open source process for software development. (Awardees are listed in alphabetical order.) The technical achievement honored by the Takeda Award 2001 Techno-Entrepreneurial Achievements for Individual/Humanity Well-Being is "development of a large-scale genome sequencing system by establishing 'the whole genome shotgun strategy' that utilizes modularized data acquisition system and high-throughput DNA sequencers." The prize is awarded jointly to Michael W. Hunkapiller (Applied Biosystems) and J. Craig Venter (Celera Genomics). Michael W. Hunkapiller is honored for his contribution to the development of the automated high-throughput DNA sequencers and the promotion of the foundation of Celera Genomics. J. Craig Venter is honored for the foundation of Celera Genomics and the development of "the whole genome shotgun strategy. " (Awardees are listed in alphabetical order.) The technical achievement honored by the Takeda Award 2001 Techno-Entrepreneurial Achievements for World Environmental Well-Being is "the development and promotion of the Ecological Rucksacks and Material Input per Unit Service (MIPS) concepts, as measures of the ecological stress of products and services." The prize is awarded jointly to Friedrich Schmidt-Bleek (Factor 10 Institute) and Ernst Ulrich von Weizsaecker (Founding President of Wuppertal Institute.) Friedrich Schmidt-Bleek is honored for developing and promoting the Ecological Rucksacks and Material Input per Unit Service (MIPS) concepts. Ernst Ulrich von Weizsaecker is honored for his contribution in refining and promoting the Ecological Rucksacks and Material Input per Unit Service (MIPS) concepts. (Awardees are listed in alphabetical order.) About the Takeda Award This award shall be presented to individuals who have demonstrated outstanding achievements in the creation and application of new engineering intellect and knowledge. The awards shall be presented for research achievements that began with a concern for human needs, and which have made an outstanding contribution to the industrial technologies intended to satisfy those needs. The Foundation has coined the term "techno-entrepreneurship" to define activities that challenge technological frontiers through the application of engineering intellect and knowledge. The achievements noted above have been selected from the point of view of "techno-entrepreneurship." About the Process of the Takeda Awards To select the recipients of the Takeda Awards 2001, the Foundation accepted nominations from an international group of 770 nominators. All nominations were reviewed, then screened in the selection process. After the winners were determined by the Selection Committee on September 3, 2001, they were further approved by the Board of Directors on September 4, 2001. The names of the Selection Committee members for the Takeda Award 2001 are listed in the attached reference. The presentation of the first set of Takeda Awards for engineering coincides with the 100th year anniversary of the Nobel Prizes, which were inaugurated in 1901. There are no Nobel Prizes awarded for engineering. About the Takeda Foundation Awarding and supporting techno-entrepreneurship is the core goal of the Tokyo-based Takeda Foundation that was established in April 2001. In addition to its award and research grant programs, which are being implemented on an international basis, the Foundation is sponsoring fellowships and scholarships. The Foundation will also conduct research and disseminate information related to advanced measurement intellect and knowledge. Further information on the Foundation›“ activities, awards and grants is available on its website (URL: http://www. takeda-foundation.jp). For further information, please contact: Junko Ikeda The Takeda Foundation PO Box No.33 St. Luke' s Tower 32F, 8-1 Akashi-cho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, 104-6591 JAPAN PHONE: +81-3-3549-2781 FAX: +81-3-3549-2787 E-mail: ike-jun@takeda-foundation.jp
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