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NEWS Rolex announces winners of
international awards scheme
October
27, 2006
Marking three decades since the inception of its
international awards programme, Rolex has 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 Swiss watchmaker for their
innovative projects to change the world and make it a
better place to live.
Each
Laureate received US$100,000 and a personally inscribed
gold Rolex chronometer on October 26 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
– will be 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 SA 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.”
The
Associate Laureates
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.
Selection Process
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 Mr Heiniger.
Joining Mr 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.
Seeking New Applicants
In June this year, Rolex called for
entries to the 2008 Rolex Awards, inviting enterprising
individuals in a broad range of areas to apply to the
13th series of the biennial programme. The Rolex Awards
aim to find and reward extraordinary and often
unrecognized men and women worldwide whose ongoing
projects benefit the global environment and mankind.
These projects must be original, feasible and positively
impact the community.
The
regional deadlines for entries for the 13th Rolex Awards
are:
31 May 2007 for Asia, the Pacific
and North, Central and South America;
30
September 2007 for Europe, the Middle East and
Africa.
The ROLEX
Laureates 2006
Alexandra Lavrillier: Run a nomadic school
for Evenk hunter-herders in Siberia
In south-eastern Siberia, a nomadic people
are trying to preserve their way of life. The
traditional culture of the Evenk, who excel at reindeer
herding, hunting and fishing, has been eroded through
contact with Western civilization. For eight years,
Alexandra Lavrillier, a brilliant French ethnologist,
has been helping them to save their heritage by setting
up a nomadic school that will give Evenk children the
chance to receive a modern education while maintaining
their ancestral traditions.
Lavrillier introduces the
pupils to computer basics, English and French, a highly
unusual curriculum for Siberian nomads. Usmun river cam,
Siberia, Russia, 2006.
Rolex Awards/Marc
Latzel
Brad Norman:
Establish a global photo-ID network for whale shark
conservation
Impelled by a love of
the sea and its largest fish, the elusive whale shark,
Australian marine conservationist Brad Norman has
created a photo-identification system to assist its
conservation. Based on a pattern-recognition method
originally invented to study constellations in the night
sky, the system will soon enable scores of coastal
communities and thousands of individual
divers to gather information about this gentle giant of
the seas.
Brad Norman developed a
photo-identification system which uses whale shark
sightings and photography around the world as a tool to
contribuate to the conservation of this charismatic
species. Ningaloo Marine Park, Australia, 2006.
Rolex Awards/Kurt Amsler
Pilai
Poonswad: Engage rural communities in Thailand in saving
threatened hornbills
After
rediscovering a species of hornbill thought to be
extinct in southern Thailand’s ravaged rainforests, Thai
microbiologist Pilai Poonswad set about turning former
poachers and illegal loggers into protectors of these
glorious birds and their precarious habitat. Her plan
for city families to “adopt” hornbill nests to fund the
work has brought about remarkable changes in community
attitudes towards conservation.
Together with her team,
Pilai Poonswad has carried out groundbreaking research
on the hornbill, a bird whose wingspan can reach 1.9
metres. Budo-Sungai, Thailand, 2006. Rolex
Awards/T.Bertelsen
Chanda Shroff: Revive the craft of
embroidery in Kutch, India
In a
remote part of India, Chanda Shroff has established a
movement to revive a local form of artistic expression,
hand embroidery, creating a sustainable means of income.
The region of Kutch once had a long and rich tradition
of embroidery. But, since the 1960s, synthetic materials
and machine work have pushed this craft close to
extinction. Shroff is preserving this unique heritage
while promoting an exquisite art form and empowering
women in highly conservative societies.
Chanda Shroff has revived
the declining tradition of Kutchi hand embroidery and
transformed it into a viable, income-generating activity
for over 20,000 women. Jura Camp, Kutch, India, 2006.
Rolex Awards/Xavier Lecoultre
Rory Wilson: Develop a revolutionary
electronic logging device to track animals
English zoologist Rory Wilson is renowned for
developing ingenious ways to track wild animals and
record their behaviour without directly observing them.
His latest invention, a lightweight logging device, can
go where satellite-based tracking devices cannot, to
observe free-living animals. Wilson’s new logger
harnesses the laws of physics to accurately estimate the
energy expenditure of animals, and is set to
revolutionize
research into the behaviour
of threatened species and obtain precious data to help
save them.
Wilson tested his new
logging device on Moon, his Border collie, before
applying it to badgers in England, beavers in Norway,
and imperial cormorants and armadillos in Argentina.
Swansea, United Kingdom, 2006.
Rolex
Awards/Marc Latzel
The ROLEX associate Laureates 2006
Cristian Donoso
Explore western Patagonia in sea kayaks as
native Kaweskars did centuries ago
In 2007-2008, Christian
Donoso will lead an ambitious, five-month expedition to
western Patagonia. His Transpatagonia Expedition will
cover 2,039 km in a pristine and difficult environment.
Canal Baker, Chile, 2006. Rolex Awards/S. Walter
Zenón Porfidio Gomel
Apaza
Revive traditional Andean
agriculture to enhance food security and strengthen ties
between communities
Gomel Apaza is reviving the
agricultural heritage of his native land, the Aktiplano
of southern Peru, where ancestral practices have been
overshadowed by modern farming technology. Pucara, Peru,
2006. Rolex Awards/Xavier Lecoultre
Shafqat Hussain
Protect snow leopards with an innovative
scheme combining livestock insurance and ecotourism
An economist turned
conservationist, Shafqat Hussain (right) developed an
innovative insurance scheme to enlist herders in the
conservation of the snow leopard. Skardu District,
Pakistan, 2006. Rolex Awards/T. Grobet
Runa Khan
Marre
Preserve the ancient
boat-building heritage of Bangladesh by opening a
“living museum”
Runa Khan on the last malar
afloat, a traditional wooden cargo sailing boat, the
first that she restored with local craftsmen in 1996.
Dhaka, Bangladesh, 2006. Rolex Awards/Heine Pedersen
Julien
Meyer
Revitalize whistled and drummed
languages via the Internet
A linguist and
bio-accoustics engineer, Meyer is one of the few world
experts on whistled and drummed languages, a
little-studied oral heritage and method of
communication. Pau, France, 2006. Rolex Awards/J.
Bélat
Source: Rolex Awards for Enterprise
http://www.rolexawards.com/
Contact:rae@rolex.com
(Please credit
europastar.com)
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