Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research

June 24, 2009 at 2:30 am by Paty

On Wednesday 17 in Oviedo, the jury of the Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research has officially announced their decission to bestow the award to Martin Cooper, discover of the the first handheld mobile telephone and to Raymond Samuel Tomlinson, the man who chose the @ sign to separate local from global e-mails in the mail address.

The jury considers that these two discoveries are among the greatest technological innovations of our time, revolutionising the way that thousands of millions of people communicate worldwide and contributing decisively to the advancement of knowledge. In particular, they are key elements for achieving the United Nations “Millennium Development Goals” that will enable every citizen on the planet to exercise their right to communicate.

With this Award, the Jury also wishes to recognise the “effort and work of all those people who have contributed to fostering and developing the mobile phone and e-mail services, forms of communication that give rise to a connected world, free from geographical or temporal barriers”.

The Presentation ceremony will take place in the autumn in Oviedo.