Annex:

Wolfgang Krätschmer, winner in the "Lifetime achievement" category

With his process for producing fullerenes, a particularly complex form of pure carbon, German physicist Wolfgang Krätschmer founded an entire branch of research in nuclear physics. Before the announcement of his procedure in 1990, scientists investigating the rare substance had to make do with theoretical assumptions. His invention paved the way for systematic research into fullerenes and led to applications from new fuels and lubricants to magnets, semiconductors and revolutionary medicines. Fullerenes now constitute a market with a turnover of more than $300 million (2008), expected to rise to $4.5 billion a year by 2015. Now 67, Krätschmer has been an honorary professor at Heidelberg University since 1993 and has set up a research group dedicated to systematically expanding our understanding of fullerenes.

Jürgen Pfitzer and Helmut Nägele, winners in the "SMEs/research" category

Plastics are a growing environmental issue. Since 1950 the world has discarded over a billion tonnes of plastic, and over 100 million tonnes are added to the heap each year. Jürgen Pfitzer and Helmut Nägele of the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology (ICT) developed an eco-friendly alternative to plastic, a 100% biodegradable material made from waste products from the paper-making process which can be shaped just as easily as plastic and is equally stable. Through Tecnaro, the company they founded in 1998, they market their green alternative to plastic under the name of "Arboform" to customers all over the world. In 2009, under Pfitzer and Nägele's management, Tecnaro produced some 275 tonnes of Arboform for applications such as furniture, loudspeakers, toys and car panelling.

Albert Markendorf and Raimund Loser, winners in the "Industry" category

In surveying and the manufacturing industry, powerful measuring devices are indispensable. With their high-precision laser-controlled co-ordinate measuring device, Swiss engineer Albert Markendorf and his German colleague Raimund Loser took measurement accuracy to a new level. Their handheld devices are ten times more accurate than earlier solutions. Marketed by Leica Geosystems since 2004, the system can measure and monitor large-scale objects like railway tracks and oil pipelines, as well as fabricated components in the manufacturing industry, all with millimetre precision. Its customers include carmakers like Audi, Daimler and Toyota, along with aerospace companies such as Boeing and Airbus. The inventors are both still active in managerial positions in product development at Leica Geosystems.

Sanjai Kohli and Steven Chen, winners in the "Non-European countries" category

Mobile navigation devices based on the Global Positioning System (GPS) are now a part of our everyday life. Originally, in the late seventies, GPS was developed exclusively for military applications. Thanks to Indian-American inventor Sanjai Kohli (of Indian descent) and Steven Chen, the technology subsequently made the move into the consumer market. In 1995, after completing his engineering training at the Indian Institute for Technology in Mumbai and at Washington University in St. Louis, Kohli founded SiRF Technologies, where he and Steven Chen developed powerful and inexpensive GPS chips. These were a thousand times more accurate than previous technologies, and since 2002 they have been used by all leading GPS manufacturers. The international market for GPS-capable devices now amounts to 300 million units per annum (2009).

Danny Epp and Ben Wiens, winners in the "Non-European countries" category

Fuel cells have long been a promising alternative to fossil fuels; but what such technologies have often lacked is cost-effectiveness and market maturity. One of the first commercially successful fuel cell systems was developed by two Canadians, Danny Epp and Ben Wiens. Since its commercial launch in 2001, the technology has been globally marketed by Vancouver-based Ballard Power Systems. Applications for the cells are chiefly to be found in emergency power generation in radio and mobile telephone stations, among other things for Motorola in Denmark. The system has also made a name for itself as a drive system for public transport buses, which are now operating in 15 cities around the world and to date have carried over seven million passengers.