Millennium Technology Award Final 2008

The organizers of the 2008 Millennium Technology Awards have just announced a list of the finalists to choose the best technology to be awarded - to be announced on June 11. The award was founded by the Finnish Academy of Technology and awarded every two years, likened to the Nobel Prize in technology.

Topping the list of finalists is the fingerprint technology of British geneticist - Alec Jeffreys at Leicester University (UK). This technology not only revolutionized forensic science but also played an important role in determining blood relations, and many other areas of life. Professor Jeffreys said: ' Being a finalist is a great honor and recognition of the importance of DNA technology and its development over the past 24 years .' Currently, scientists focus on research to shorten the testing time and return results from a few hours to a second.

The EDFA amplifier of three British scientists, including Professor David Payne, Dr. Emmanuel Desurvire and Dr. Randy Giles, has changed the face of the global telecommunications industry, especially in the field of long-distance communications and

Since its founding (2004), the Millennium Technology Award has been awarded to Tim Berners-Lee, the " father " of the global Internet and Professor Shuji Nakamura - the inventor of the light-emitting diode ( LED) white, blue, green and blue laser diode.

high speed. The study of the three uses erbium heavy elements to amplify the light signal used in fiber optic networks, thus limiting the cost of developing long-distance optical networks and broadband ' birth '. Long-distance fiber optic networks. The establishment of EDFA has promoted the strong development of the global network, affecting the business, education and entertainment activities of billions of people around the world.

Meanwhile, the invention of American-born engineer Andrew Viterbi also affected human life. His algorithm offers the design and implementation of a modern wireless communications system by simply complicating and twisting the world of signal processing. Viterbi algorithm is a bug fix for digital media and is currently used every day for billions of mobile phone calls, satellite communications, wireless systems and slow MP3 players. Professor Viterbi published this algorithm in 1967 but it was not applied until computing power became strong enough to cope with mass calculations. He co-founded Qualcomm, supporting GSM's CDMA-rival development and being used in 3G wireless technology around the world today.

Professor Robert Langer of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA) is a pioneer in many new technologies, including dispensing systems through the skin without needles. Research on creating Langer's drug release polymer has paved the way for the development of a new method for treating brain tumors. Polymer with ingredients including plastic, DNA, protein, natural and synthetic substances have different characteristics and features, helping to release drugs into the body accurately and controlled. Professor Langer is also the "father" of controlled tissue and drug delivery techniques.

Alec Jeffreys (Photo: BBC)

Robert S. Langer (Photo: MIT)

Desurvire (Photo: ieee.org)

Viterbi (Photo: Qualcommequation)