Winners
| Year | Inventor | Nationality | Invention | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Bodo Linnhoff | Germany | Helping the Environment | Inventor of Pinch Analysis, a technique for minimizing energy usage in the process industries. In its early days, the technique helped companies such as ICI and BASF to design plants that used roughly 30% less energy. As of the 1990s, Pinch Analysis became industrial standard in the oil refining and petrochemical industries. |
| Name changes to the Millennium Technology Prize | ||||
| 2004 | Tim Berners-Lee | United Kingdom | World Wide Web | Inventor of the World Wide Web from United Kingdom, was announced on April 15, 2004 as the first laureate of the award. The Prize was presented to Berners-Lee at a ceremony in the Finlandia Hall in Helsinki by the President of Finland, Tarja Halonen on June 15, 2004. Selection committee studied 78 nominations from 22 countries for the 2004 prize. |
| 2006 | Shuji Nakamura | Japan United States |
Blue and white LEDs | Inventor of high brightness blue and white LEDs used in lighting, computer displays and new-generation DVDs, from California, United States, was announced on June 15, 2006 as the second laureate of the award. The Prize was presented to Nakamura at a ceremony in the Helsinki Fair Centre in Helsinki by the President of Finland Tarja Halonen on September 8, 2006. Selection committee studied 109 nominations from 32 countries for the 2006 prize. |
| 2008 | Robert Langer | United States | Innovative biomaterials | Inventor of controlled drug release from the United States, was announced on June 11, 2008 as the third laureate of the award. The prize 800,000 euros was presented to Langer at a ceremony in Helsinki by the President of Finland Tarja Halonen “for his invention and development of innovative biomaterials for controlled drug release and tissue regeneration that have significantly improved human health.” The other 2008 Millennium Laureates, Alec Jeffreys and Andrew Viterbi and the group of Emmanuel Desurvire, Randy Giles and David N. Payne, were each awarded prizes of 115,000 euros. |
| 2010 | Michael Grätzel | Switzerland | Dye-sensitized solar cells | Inventor of third generation dye-sensitized solar cells. The president of Finland Tarja Halonen handed the 800,000 euros Grand Prize and the prize trophy "Peak" to Grätzel at the Grand Award Ceremony at the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki on 9 June 2010. The two other 2010 Millennium Laureates, Richard Friend and Stephen Furber, were each awarded prizes of 150,000 euros. |
| 2012 | Linus Torvalds | Finland | Linux kernel | |
| Shinya Yamanaka | Japan | Induced pluripotent stem cell | ||
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“The two real political parties in America are the Winners and the Losers. The people don’t acknowledge this. They claim membership in two imaginary parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, instead.”
—Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (b. 1922)