The Tech Museum Awards is an international awards program that honors innovators from around the world who are applying technology to benefit humanity.

For the ninth consecutive year, The Tech Museum of Innovation, one of the country’s premier science and technology museums, announced that nominations are open for the 2009 Tech Museum Awards: Technology Benefiting Humanity.

The deadline for nominations is April 10, 2009. Individuals, non-profit, for-profit and government organizations are all eligible to apply. Nomination forms and Awards criteria can be found at The Tech Museum’s Awards Web site at www.techawards.org.

Following the nomination period, eligible nominees will be invited to submit applications in five categories:

• Environment
• Economic Development
• Education
• Health
• Equality

In September 2009, Laureates will be selected by an international panel of judges led by the Santa Clara University Center for Science, Technology and Society. Five of the Laureates will each receive a $50,000 prize at a gala event held on November 19, 2009, when Silicon Valley luminaries and technology philanthropists gather to celebrate the ways in which these Laureates have applied technology to address the world’s most pressing issues.

About The Tech Museum Awards
The Tech Museum Awards: Technology Benefiting Humanity, presented by Applied Materials, Inc., is one of the premier annual humanitarian awards programs in the world, recognizing and supporting solutions that benefit humanity and address some of the most critical issues facing our planet and its people. The Laureates (individuals, for-profit, public and not-for-profit organizations) recognized by the Program each year must demonstrate:

• the use of technology to significantly improve the human condition in one of the five areas;
• evidence that a serious problem or challenge with broad significance is addressed by this use of technology;
• a noteworthy contribution that surpasses previous or current solutions;
• a novel application that represents a breakthrough or a creative adaptation of an existing technology;
• the potential for this use of technology to serve as an inspiration or model for others.

Laureates are selected by a prestigious panel of international judges organized by the Center for Science, Technology, and Society at Santa Clara University, and made up of Santa Clara University faculty as well as leaders from educational and research institutions, industry and the public sector around the world.

NCTI is a proud co-sponsor of these awards and proud to work in collaboration with The Tech Museum.

For more information about The Tech Museum Awards, visit www.techawards.org. �