The Rolex Awards for Enterprise
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www.asiabiotech.com General
The Rolex Awards
for Enterprise
A
ny individual entering the medical profession is, by this very choice of career,
demonstrating his or her commitment to helping others. In Singapore, we have
nearly 6,500 doctors, and 10,500 nurses and midwives who have devoted their
professional lives to improving the well-being of their fellow citizens.
Not satisfied with just focusing on their “day-job”which is already quite demanding,
some medical professionals have demonstrated an awe-inspiring humanitarian spirit.
This year, Rolex celebrates 30th anniversary of the Rolex Awards for Enterprise, an
Awards scheme which recognises individuals who seek to advance human knowledge
and well-being. Of the 85 award-winners, known as Laureates or Associate Laureates,
12 have used their scientific and medical knowledge to promote human welfare.
Moreover, a number of these Laureates have taken this onerous task over and above
their day jobs.
Inventing a Safe Lamp to Prevent Burns
Sri Lankan Rolex Laureate (1998), Wijaya Godakumbura, is a surgeon who has battled
apathy and ignorance for nearly 20 years to save people from disfigurement and death
by fire. Appalled by the number of burn victims he saw in his clinic, Godakumbura
invented an accident-proof lamp. He found a factory prepared to manufacture the
lamps, raised funds and began the Herculean task of forming a distribution network
that would reach over 1.5 million homes without electricity.
Today, Godakumbura’s invention is preventing the loss of thousands of lives
and sparing many more from lifelong disfigurement. Moreover, in the wake of the
tsunami, cheap, safe lamps were a primary necessity and aid agencies clamoured for
Godakumbura’s invention.
Godakumbura is a most determined man. On top of his demanding surgical
duties, he puts in at least 150 hours per month, generally alone, on the safe-bottle lamp
project.
Supplying Unused Medical Equipment to Impoverished
Hospitals
Every year, the US hospitals discard clean, unused medical supplies worth an estimated
US$200 million. Yet, doctors and hospitals in many parts of the world are unable to
carry out their work because of the lack of medical equipment. Professor William H.
Rosenblatt, MD, Professor of Anesthesiology at Yale University School of Medicine in the
US, has been leading a revolution to bridge this gap. In 1991, he founded Recovered
Medical Equipment for the Developing World (REMEDY), a group of health care
professionals promoting the nationwide practice of the recovery of open-but-unused
surgical supplies.
APBN • Vol. 10 • No. 11 • 2006 619www.asiabiotech.com General
Dr Rosenblatt was made a Rolex Laureate in 1996 in recognition of his pioneering
initiative. The Award enabled him to hire staff, whereas initially he had been working
on his own. As of June 2004, the REMEDY at Yale programme alone had donated more
than 30 tons of medical supplies. The supplies are sent through US based charities to
over 50 countries in Eastern Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa.
The Travelling Doctor
Rolex Laureate, Aldo Lo Curto, has put himself at the service of humanity by spending
over 30 years working as a doctor in almost 40 countries. This “volunteer travelling
doctor” spends half the year in his medical practice in Italy and the rest of his time
healing, teaching and living among indigenous people on several continents. At the
same time, he wants to bring indigenous holistic views of illness to the West in order
“to humanize the relationship between doctor and patient”.
Lo Curto funds his humanitarian activities by saving as much as he can from his
medical practice in Italy to pay for his travels. He also works autonomously, collaborating
with organizations and individuals, but not depending on them.
In the early 1980s, Lo Curto began spending several months a year with indigenous
people in various countries, healing their illnesses and teaching them how to avoid falling
ill again. In the early 1990s, he wrote a health manual for the people of the Amazon.
His 1993 Rolex Award enabled him to print 2,000 copies of the manual and subsequently
he produced an African version.
More recently, Lo Curto has spent time in Mongolia, working with the Red Cross,
combining health care with health education and often travelling vast distances on
horseback to provide medical care to patients. He also hopes to travel to Australia to
work with Aboriginal communities.
Championing the Rights of Women
Here in Singapore, one of the former Rolex Awards Selection Committee members, Dr
Kanwaljit Soin, has also demonstrated her human-centered approach to life. Not only
is Soin one of Singapore’s most respected orthopaedic and hand surgeons, but she is
also a champion of disadvantaged women.
An outspoken public figure, Soin began asserting her views on women’s rights and
social issues in 1985 as a founding member of the Association of Women for Action
and Research (AWARE). Six years later, she was elected the organization’s president and
also became the nation’s first woman to serve as a Nominated Member of Parliament,
appointed by Singapore’s president for two two-year terms.
Today, in addition to her medical practice and duties as president of the local
International Women’s Forum, Soin is mainly involved with the United Nations
Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). As the founder and a former president of
UNIFEM’s Singapore chapter, she is the driving force behind programs to alleviate poverty
and improve education and health care throughout Asia.
Soin’s achievements as a surgeon and active participant in welfare, advocacy, artistic
and professional organizations helped gain her the title of Singapore’s “Woman of the
Year” in 1992.
620 APBN • Vol. 10 • No. 11 • 2006www.asiabiotech.com General
Singapore —A Future Laureate?
Here in Singapore, there are undoubtedly hundreds of health care workers and medical
experts whose devotion to their work and patients means that they do not hesitate to
go that extra mile, taking on additional tasks and responsibilities to help others. Their
names and faces may not always make the headlines, but their efforts are appreciated
by those whose lives they touch.
In Singapore, this courage and selflessness was clearly seen during the outbreak
of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Singapore in 2003. Singapore is now
celebrating its second year free of SARS.
Rebecca Irvin, program director of the Rolex Awards for Enterprise, commented,
“In the same way that Rolex recognized the courage and determination of medical
professionals such as Dr Godakumbura and Dr Lo Curto, we will reward more exceptional
individuals and their achievements on 26th October 2006, when we celebrate 30 years
since the inception of the Rolex Awards with the announcement of five new Laureates
at a ceremony in Singapore.”
“These people will come from all walks of life, but they will have one thing in
common: a passion to protect the world they live in, and those who inhabit it, and make
it a better place.” Irvin continued.
APBN • Vol. 10 • No. 11 • 2006 621www.asiabiotech.com General
The Rolex Awards for Enterprise aim to encourage a spirit of enterprise in visionary individuals
around the globe by providing the financial support and recognition they need to implement
innovative, working projects that advance human knowledge and well-being. Rolex established
the Awards in 1976 to mark the 50th anniversary of its own greatest innovation, the Oyster
chronometer, the world’s first waterproof wristwatch. The program reflects the company’s long-
held commitment to individual excellence and its tradition of supporting talent and achievement.
Now held every two years, the Awards have been presented on 11 occasions.
The five key areas of recognition are:
• Science and Medicine—projects in the natural or physical sciences that contribute to
human health and welfare.
• Technology and Innovation—inventions, new devices or processes in the applied sciences
that contribute significantly to the world.
• Exploration and Discovery—expeditions, journeys or ventures that inspire our imagination
and expand our knowledge of the world.
• The Environment—projects that protect, preserve or improve our natural and physical
surroundings.
• Cultural Heritage—projects that conserve, safeguard or contribute to our historical, cultural
or artistic heritage.
The Rolex Awards fund new or ongoing work and assist in the completion of outstanding
initiatives rather than rewarding past achievements. Five Laureates, those who present the
most exceptional projects, each receive US$100,000 and a specially inscribed, gold Rolex
chronometer at an official awards ceremony. Five runners-up, the Associate Laureates, each
receive US$35,000, as well as a steel-and-gold Rolex chronometer. The ceremonies for these
men and women are held in their home country or region. All the winners benefit from the
international recognition of their work. The award recipients must use their monetary prizes
to implement or complete their pioneering projects.
Four main criteria are used to select the winning projects:
• Spirit of enterprise—a project carried out with determination, tenacity and boldness, usually
against challenging odds.
• Feasibility—a project that is likely to succeed.
• Originality—an innovative project that breaks new ground.
• Impact—a project that has a positive impact on the community. Judges also consider what
effect a Rolex Award will have on the completion of the project.
The Selection Committee, an independent, voluntary jury of internationally renowned
experts representing a variety of disciplines and countries, evaluates the projects and
chooses the Laureates and Associate Laureates. Chaired by Rolex Chief Executive Officer
Patrick Heiniger, the panel changes for each series.
622 APBN • Vol. 10 • No. 11 • 2006www.asiabiotech.com General
Science and Medicine
List of Laureates and Associate Laureates
Name Laureate/ Year Project Summary
Associate Laureate
1. Bernard Francou (France) Associate Laureate 2000 A French glaciologist and mountaineer who set out to study
El Nino and the impact of global warming through extracting
an ice core deep inside an Andean glacier.
2. Laurent Pordié (France) Laureate 2000 Pordié, an anthropologist and ethno-pharmacologist, has led
a campaign to ensure Ladakhis continue to benefit from the
1,000 year old Amchi medicine, which was threatened by
the social changes of the 20th century.
3. Erna Alant (South Africa) Associate Laureate 1998 Set up a center, the only one in Africa, in South Africa to
assist adults and children who lack the power of speech
because of accidents, health problems or congenital defects.
4. Wijaya Godakumbura (Sri Lanka) Laureate 1998 A surgeon who devised a safer lamp to prevent the deaths
and severe injuries caused by home-made kerosene oil bot-
tle lamps in Sri Lanka.
Name Laureate/ Year Project Summary
Associate Laureate
5. Nabil M. Lawandy (United States) Associate Laureate 1996 Professor who developed a new type of paint that exhibits
laser action and can be potentially used as a low-cost,
sophisticated treatment for cancers.
6. William Rosenblatt (United States) Laureate 1996 Set up REMEDY to channel unused medical supplies from US
hospitals to medical centers in impoverished hospitals.
7. Aldo Lo Curto (Italy) Laureate 1993 A ”volunteer travelling doctor” who spends half the year in
his practice in Italy and the rest of his time healing, teaching
and living among indigenous people on several continents.
8. Jacques Luc Autran (France) Laureate 1987 Set up an association to bring medical aid, by ship, to iso-
lated communities on the islands of the Indian Ocean.
9. Pierre Morvan (France) Laureate 1987 A retired taxi driver and self-taught expert on beetles who
explored insect populations in regions often out of bounds
to professional scientists to deepen understanding of how
biological species are formed.
Name Laureate/ Year Project Summary
Associate Laureate
10. Billy Lee Lasley (United States) Laureate 1978 Facilitated the breeding of endangered bird species by
developing non-invasive methods for determining their sex.
His work has also helped to monitor the reproductive health
of women exposed to chemicals in the environment.
11. Francine Patterson (United States) Laureate 1978 Uncovered astonishing linguistic creativity among gorillas
by teaching them sign language. Set up a foundation to help
protect gorillas in the wild and captivity.
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