Technology Academy Finland has today declared two prominent innovators, Linus Torvalds and Dr Shinya Yamanaka, laureates of the 2012 Millennium Technology Prize, the prominent award for technological innovation. The laureates, who will follow in the footsteps of past victors such as World Wide Web creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee, will be celebrated at a ceremony in Helsinki, Finland, on Wednesday 13 June 2012, when the winner of the Grand Prize will be announced. The prize pool exceeds EUR 1 Million.

Torvalds is awarded in recognition of his creation of a new open source operating system kernel that has led to the widely used Linux operating system. The free availability of Linux on the Web swiftly caused a chain reaction leading to further development and fine-tuning worth the equivalent of thousands or tens of thousands of man years. Today millions computers, smartphones, digital video recorders and other electronic appliances run on Linux. Linus Torvald’s achievements have had a great impact on shared software development, networking and the openness of the web, making it accessible for millions, if not billions.

Torvalds initiated the development of Linux while studying and working at the Department of Computer Science of University of Helsinki in 1988-1996. He received an honorary doctorate of University of Helsinki in 2000, and became and honorary alumnus of the Faculty of Science in 2011.

Picture: Beraldo Leal