The environment and health came out as top winners in the 2009 European Inventor of the Year awards, announced this week.

Presented by the European Commission and the European Patent Office (EPO), the awards honoured inventors in four categories: lifetime achievement, industry, SMEs/research and Non-European countries.

This year’s lifetime achievement award went to Adolf Goetzberger of Germany (pictured here with Alison Brimelow, EPO president) for his work on the commercial use of solar energy, which is helping to make solar cells a viable alternative to fossil fuels.

Joseph Le Mer of France earned SMEs/research honours for inventing a heat exchanger with a simple design that makes heating systems both inexpensive and energy-efficient.

The industry award went to Jürg Zimmermann of Switzerland and Brian Druker of the US for their invention of an effective drug to combat chronic myelogenous leukaemia, providing unprecedented rates of recovery. And Zhou Yiqing of China took the honours for non-European countries for developing  an anti-malaria drug based on a herbal agent, which has been instrumental in saving hundreds of thousands of lives.

“The prizewinners are a testament to the richness of the human imagination and the significance of technological innovation,” said Günter Verheugen, the Commission vice-president in charge of enterprise and industry. “Their inventions have saved lives all over the world and protected the environment; yet their innovatory spirit has also helped to create jobs in Europe and strengthen its competitiveness.”

“The award celebrates the creativity of all inventors who, in applying their technical, scientific and intellectual skills, make a major contribution to technical progress, growth and employment in Europe,” added Alison Brimelow, EPO president. “Such skills are particularly important in economically difficult times.”

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