The Economist’s Innovation Award for Computing and Telecommunications given to pioneer Raymond Kurzweil

Core Facts

Come and meet Mr Kurzweil, inventor and futurist, as he accepts an award at The Economist’s Innovation Awards Ceremony in London on October 29th

• At the age of 15, Raymond Kurzweil wrote his first computer program, which was used by researchers at IBM, and his invention of the first musical synthesiser came two years later. In 1974, Mr Kurzweil created and commercialised optical character recognition (OCR) technology and later created the fist omni-font OCR system. In 1978, he began to sell this technology, and the OCR market has been growing ever since. In the 1980s, Mr Kurzweil developed computer speech recognition and launched the world’s first large vocabulary speech recognition program. He continued to revolutionise this technology in the medical field, as well as performing ground-breaking research in various areas of artificial intelligence.
• The Economist is delighted to recognise Raymond Kurzweil, founder of Kurzweil Computer Products and Kurzweil Applied Intelligence, as this year’s winner in the category Computing and Telecommunications. Previous winners in this category include Matti Makkonen, former Executive Vice-president, Sonera, for his work on Short Message Service (SMS) text messaging, and Mike Lazaridis, founder of Research in Motion, for the development of the BlackBerry mobile e-mail device. 
• Raymond Kurzweil and seven other 2009 Award Winners will be recognised for turning their innovative ideas into reality at The Economist’s Eighth Annual Innovation Awards Ceremony and Summit, held in London on October 29th & 30th. The Awards Ceremony takes place at London’s Science Museum on the night of October 29th and the Summit follows the day after at the Dorchester Hotel. This unique event is the only one of its kind focusing on the interface between innovation and business. 
• The Economist’s Eighth Annual Innovation Summit provides an opportunity for delegates to meet the greatest thinkers and doers of this world, take away content relevant to their business and hear further from the 2009 Innovation Award winners. The full programme includes speakers such as Dr Joseph Adelegan, President of Green Globe Trust Founder and Cows to Kilowatts Partnership, who is campaigning on issues of eco-efficiency, climate change, and eco-solutions and renewable energy in Africa. Dr Adelegan will be joined by Dr Sergio Kapusta, Chief Scientist-Materials at Shell, who will be talking about the company’s work to help safely recover more of the world’s oil and gas from existing fields using some of the most innovative structures in energy exploration. 
• Journalists may request interviews and a place at The Economist’s Eighth Annual Innovation Awards Ceremony (29th) at the Science Museum and Summit (30th) at The Dorchester by contacting the press team at Waggener Edstrom on +44 207 632 3900 or e-mail ecis@waggeneredstrom.com.

Tom Standage, The Economist Business Editor, talks about Raymond Kurzweil’s winning entry: http://www.economistconferences.co.uk/innovation/computingtelecomsaward

Social media and online:
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Web: http://www.economistconferences.co.uk/innovation/computingtelecomsaward

Quotes

Judge’s quote: Andrew Odlyzko, Professor, School of Mathematics, University of Minnesota

“Ray Kurzweil has used the advances in basic electronic technologies to pioneer a range of innovative products in optical character recognition, speech recognition, music, text to speech synthesis, and medicine. His vision and sense for how fast technology was progressing led to products that were usually not only first to market, but were commercially successful, and have assisted the handicapped, advanced the arts, and stimulated the imagination of countless other technologists and entrepreneurs. His work is a stellar example of the achievements that The Economist’s Innovation Awards are intended to recognise and encourage.” 

Winner’s quote: Raymond Kurzweil, Founder, Kurzweil Computer Products (now Nuance), currently CEO, Kurzweil Technologies, Inc. (www.nuance.com)

“I am deeply honored to receive this recognition.  In my work in optical character recognition and speech recognition, my goal was to provide new modalities for the transmission of human knowledge.  As an inventor I quickly realized that timing was critical to success so I sought to develop models of how information technology evolves.  With these projections we can use our imaginations to envision inventions of the future, and I have tried to do that in my books and web sites such as www.KurzweilAI.net. Again, I want to thank The Economist for this distinguished recognition.”

Boilerplate Statements

For further information or to request an interview with any of the winners of The Economist’s Eighth Annual Innovation Awards, contact the press team at Waggener Edstrom on + 44 7632 3900 or e-mail ecis@waggeneredstrom.com. 

About The Economist / Economist Conferences

This press release has been sent by Waggener Edstrom on behalf of The Economist’s Innovation Awards.   

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About The Economist’s Innovation Awards (www.economistinnovation.com)

The Economist was established in 1843 to take part in a "severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress". One of the chief ways in which intelligence presses forward is through innovation, which is now recognised as one of the most important contributors to economic growth. Innovation, in turn, depends on the creative individuals who dream up new ideas and turn them into reality. The Economist recognises these talented individuals through our annual Innovation Awards. 

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