Presentation of the 7th 'European Inventor of 2012' Awards
The latest edition of the ‘European inventor’ awards ceremony was held on 14 June in Denmark. The award does not include a cash prize, just the prestige of being Europe’s best inventor of the year.
The European Patent Office (EPO) presents these awards to encourage innovation amongst European scientists and entrepreneurs. The awards do not go to inventions that never leave the laboratory but to inventors who can prove that their invention can become a successful marketable product. Also exceptional inventors receive recognition for their contribution to social, economic and technological progress.
The ceremony
The Danish Princes chaired the ceremony held in the Royal Danish Theatre opposite the Copenhagen canals. Fifteen inventions from nine countries and in five categories reached this year’s finals. Over 350 guests and outstanding figures from the worlds of politics, society and the economy, such as scientists, researchers and specialists in Intellectual Property, came together with the sole purpose of paying tribute to people who will “bring our future a little closer”.
The 2012 winners were:
- Josef Bille, Heidelberg University (Germany), in the category ‘Recognition for a lifetime’’ for his innovative development of laser technology for corrective surgery of the cornea.
- Jan Tøpholm, Søren Westermann and Svend Vitting Andersen (Denmark), in the ‘Industry’ category for development of an automatic method to produce personalised hearing aids.
- Manfred Stefener, Oliver Freitag and Jens Müller (Germany) in the ‘SME’ category for their invention of the first portable fuel cell.
- Gilles Gosselin, Jean-Louis Imbach and Martin L. Bryant from the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), in the ‘Research’ category for development of an effective drug for treating hepatitis B.
- John O'Sullivan, Graham Daniels, Terence Percival, Diethelm Ostry and John Dean (Australia) in the ‘non-European countries’ category for creating technology to send wireless data at high speed between devices such as laptops and mobile phones. This technology created the most powerful and fastest LAN network on which the Wi-Fi technology was based.
During the event it was stated that innovation is one of the most powerful and basic ways of achieving economic growth, guaranteeing employment and social and technological development. In the words of Benoît Battistelli, President of the European Patent Office, “Behind each innovation are men and women who are driven to discover and produce something new. Inventors are the real heroes of the 21st century in that they promote progress and prosperity for society”.
For further information: click here
