The first Russian “Noble Prize” shared between Russian and US scientists
A 600,000 dollar prize will go overseas
Gregory Kolpakov
The first laureate of the first Global Energy International Prize was announced at ceremonious presentation on April 25, 2003. The Prize in the amount of US$ 900,000 established by three cofounders – Gazprom, RAO UES of Russia (United Energy System of Russia) and YUKOS (an oil company) – was awarded to well known scientists: Russian Academician Gennady Mesyats, Dr. Ian Douglas Smith from the Titan Pulse Science Division (USA) and Professor Nick Holonyak from the University of Illinois (USA).
The Laureate’s medals and certificates will be presented to the Prizewinners in St. Petersburg on June 15. According to Sergey Yastrzhembsky, an aide to President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, would hand the awards to the laureates. The Nobel winner Academician Zhores Alfyorov, Chairman of the Management Committee of Gazprom Alexey Miller and Chairman of the Expert Commission for the Global Energy Prize International Committee Academician Vladimir Fortov planned to attend the ceremony.
Academician Gennadi Mesyats and his American colleague Ian Douglas Smith will divide 600,000 US dollars awarded to them for pioneering developments in the field of high-power impulse energetics. “With the introduction of equipment developed by them, the safety and efficiency of power transmission lines has increased greatly”, Academician Vladimir Fortov is quoted as saying at the press conference.
The rest 300,000 US dollars will be awarded to Professor Holonyak for the “fundamental contribution to the development of silicon power electronics and invention of the first light-emitting diodes in the visible spectrum”. Silicon power electronics (or, to make it easier, thyristors he invented in 1957 and which are now installed at each electric locomotive) allow to decrease power consumption by up to 30%; these light-emitting diodes are well known to everybody today. As the Chairman of the Global Energy International Commission Zhores Alforov noted, in the next 20 – 30 years incandescent lamps will become a history – light-emitting diodes will come to their place.
“The Global Energy Prize” was conceived as a non-recurrent action on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg, but with the time an idea emerged to make it regular. The main, and may be, the only principal difference of a new Russian scientific award from the original Nobel Prize, is that its long life is taken for granted. The founders are supposed to finance the award on an annular basis, i.e. the fate of the prize will depend on the founders’ inclination. Contrary to that, the “Nobel” money, as it is well known, is nothing else but the percentage of the principal amount deposited at the account of the fund established by the dynamite inventor.
Still, nobody expects the Prize awarding termination – long life is predicted to it. “We’ll go on with financial and organizational support of the Prize”, - declared Alexey Miller at the press conference.
Nezavisimaya gazeta (“Independent newspaper”) - On April, 25, 2003.