Pirelli Internetional Award
Encyclopedia
The Pirelli Internetional Award was first offered in 1996, as the first international multimedia
competition for the communication of science & technology conducted entirely on the internet
. Since then, annual awards have been granted to the best multimedia presentations focussing on themes involving the diffusion of science and technology. The multimedia presentations must deal with either physics
, chemistry
, mathematics
, life sciences
, or the enabling information and communication technologies
that empower multimedia
itself. According to Marco Tronchetti Provera
, President of the Pirelli Group, the award was established in the belief that the diffusion of social, economic and technological advances are as important as their discovery. As the name indicates, the award is sponsored by the Pirelli Corporation
.
laureates reviews the top entries.
With an overall budget prize of 105,000 euro (about US$ 130,000), awards are granted in the following major categories: physics
, chemistry
, mathematics
, life sciences
, and information and communications technology
.
for his work on the Entomopter
, a biologically inspired insect-like aerial robot.
1996 First Prize: Elisa Manacorda (Italy) for GalileoNet.it
1997 First Prize: Marc Ziegler (Switzerland
) for sgich1.unifr.ch/visu.html
1998 First Prize: Jurgen Renn (Germany
) for the Institute and Museum of the History of Science
1999 First Prize: Ericsson Medialab (Sweden) for Warriors of the Net
2000 First Prize: Roberto Fieschi (INFM, Italy
) for maccw.sns.it/technet
2001 First Prize and Top Pirelli Prize: Robert C. Michelson
(Georgia Institute of Technology
, USA) for http://avdil.gtri.gatech.edu/RCM/RCM/Entomopter/EntomopterProject.htmlthe Entomopter Project
]
2002 First Prize and Top Pirelli Prize: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
(USA) for GVirtual Labs
2003 First Prize and Top Pirelli Prize: David Grubin Productions, Thirteen/WNET and Docstar (USA) for Secret Life of the Brain
2004 First Prize and Top Pirelli Prize: Patrick J. Lynch
(Yale University
, USA) for the Yale-New Haven Medical Center
2005 First Prize and Top Pirelli Prize: Roeland van der Marel and Gijs Verdoes Kleijn (Space Telescope Science Institute
, Netherlands/USA) and Educational Web Adventures (Netherlands/USA) for Black Holes: Gravity's Relentless Pull
2006 First Prize and Top Pirelli Prize: New Index (Norway) for the Interactive Mobile Whiteboard
2007 First Prize and Top Pirelli Prize: Space Telescope Institute/Google (USA) for Google Sky
Multimedia
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
competition for the communication of science & technology conducted entirely on the internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. Since then, annual awards have been granted to the best multimedia presentations focussing on themes involving the diffusion of science and technology. The multimedia presentations must deal with either physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
, chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
, mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, life sciences
Life sciences
The life sciences comprise the fields of science that involve the scientific study of living organisms, like plants, animals, and human beings. While biology remains the centerpiece of the life sciences, technological advances in molecular biology and biotechnology have led to a burgeoning of...
, or the enabling information and communication technologies
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
that empower multimedia
Multimedia
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
itself. According to Marco Tronchetti Provera
Marco Tronchetti Provera
Marco Tronchetti Provera was born in Milan in 1948 and obtained a Degree in Economics and Business Administration from the Bocconi University of Milan in 1971...
, President of the Pirelli Group, the award was established in the belief that the diffusion of social, economic and technological advances are as important as their discovery. As the name indicates, the award is sponsored by the Pirelli Corporation
Pirelli
Pirelli & C. SpA is a diverse multinational company based in Milan, Italy. The company, the world’s fifth largest tyre manufacturer, is present in over 160 countries, has 20 manufacturing sites around the world and a network of around 10,000 distributors and retailers.Founded in Milan in 1872,...
.
Judging
An international jury of notable people including Nobel PrizeNobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
laureates reviews the top entries.
With an overall budget prize of 105,000 euro (about US$ 130,000), awards are granted in the following major categories: physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
, chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
, mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, life sciences
Life sciences
The life sciences comprise the fields of science that involve the scientific study of living organisms, like plants, animals, and human beings. While biology remains the centerpiece of the life sciences, technological advances in molecular biology and biotechnology have led to a burgeoning of...
, and information and communications technology
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
.
Physics
This category rewards the best multimedia works coming from the field of physics and amounts to an award of 15,000 euro.Chemistry
This category rewards the best multimedia works coming from the field of chemistry and amounts to an award of 15,000 euro.Mathematics
This category rewards the best multimedia work coming from the field of mathematics and amounts to an award of 15,000 euro.Life Sciences
This category rewards the best multimedia work coming from the field of life sciences and amounts to an award of 15,000 euro.Information and Communications Technology
This special category prize rewards those multimedia works which represent a relevant contribution to Information and Communications Technology by means of a product, process, or service, and is deemed to be of particular significance to the jury in that the Pirelli Internetional Award is predicated in large degree to contributions such as these. The Information and Communications Technology prize amounts to 15,000 euro.Top Pirelli Prize
The Top Pirelli Prize is the supreme recognition that the international jury grants a multimedia work which best embodies the philosophy of the Pirelli Internetional Award. In fact, the Top Pirelli Prize is considered the overall winner. It amounts to an additional 10,000 euro on top of the monetary award granted in any of the five regular categories. The Top Pirelli Prize was first awarded in 2001 (five years after the inception of the Pirelli Award) to Prof. Robert C. MichelsonRobert C. Michelson
Robert C. Michelson is an American engineer and academic widely known for inventing the entomopter, a biologically inspired flapping-winged aerial robot, and for having established the International Aerial Robotics Competition. He has received degrees in electrical engineering from the Virginia...
for his work on the Entomopter
Entomopter
The Entomopter is a multimode insect-like robot developed by Prof. Robert C. Michelson and his design team from the Georgia Tech Research Institute , University of Cambridge , ETS Labs and others. The name 'Entomopter' is derived from entomo + pteron...
, a biologically inspired insect-like aerial robot.
Past Award Winners
Winners of the Pirelli Award (First Prize for best from any institution, and Top Pirelli Prize):1996 First Prize: Elisa Manacorda (Italy) for GalileoNet.it
1997 First Prize: Marc Ziegler (Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
) for sgich1.unifr.ch/visu.html
1998 First Prize: Jurgen Renn (Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
) for the Institute and Museum of the History of Science
1999 First Prize: Ericsson Medialab (Sweden) for Warriors of the Net
2000 First Prize: Roberto Fieschi (INFM, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
) for maccw.sns.it/technet
2001 First Prize and Top Pirelli Prize: Robert C. Michelson
Robert C. Michelson
Robert C. Michelson is an American engineer and academic widely known for inventing the entomopter, a biologically inspired flapping-winged aerial robot, and for having established the International Aerial Robotics Competition. He has received degrees in electrical engineering from the Virginia...
(Georgia Institute of Technology
Georgia Institute of Technology
The Georgia Institute of Technology is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States...
, USA) for http://avdil.gtri.gatech.edu/RCM/RCM/Entomopter/EntomopterProject.htmlthe Entomopter Project
Entomopter
The Entomopter is a multimode insect-like robot developed by Prof. Robert C. Michelson and his design team from the Georgia Tech Research Institute , University of Cambridge , ETS Labs and others. The name 'Entomopter' is derived from entomo + pteron...
]
2002 First Prize and Top Pirelli Prize: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Howard Hughes Medical Institute is a United States non-profit medical research organization based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It was founded by the American businessman Howard Hughes in 1953. It is one of the largest private funding organizations for biological and medical research in the United...
(USA) for GVirtual Labs
2003 First Prize and Top Pirelli Prize: David Grubin Productions, Thirteen/WNET and Docstar (USA) for Secret Life of the Brain
2004 First Prize and Top Pirelli Prize: Patrick J. Lynch
Patrick J. Lynch
Patrick James Lynch is an American author, artist, biomedical illustrator, and photographer. He lives in North Haven, Connecticut with his wife Susan E. Grajek....
(Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, USA) for the Yale-New Haven Medical Center
2005 First Prize and Top Pirelli Prize: Roeland van der Marel and Gijs Verdoes Kleijn (Space Telescope Science Institute
Space Telescope Science Institute
The Space Telescope Science Institute is the science operations center for the Hubble Space Telescope and for the James Webb Space Telescope...
, Netherlands/USA) and Educational Web Adventures (Netherlands/USA) for Black Holes: Gravity's Relentless Pull
2006 First Prize and Top Pirelli Prize: New Index (Norway) for the Interactive Mobile Whiteboard
2007 First Prize and Top Pirelli Prize: Space Telescope Institute/Google (USA) for Google Sky
Future
In a July 2, 2008 communique, author and manager of the Pirelli Internetional Award, Massimo Armeni, announced that Pirelli would no longer be conducting the award on an annual basis, however no indication was given as to when the next competition for the award would be announced.External links
- Official Pirelli Award web site Describes the purpose, categories, history, and rules for winning the Pirelli Award. (Retrieved 22 January 2006)