Perpetuating knowledge

Taking a volcano’s pulse

Eight hundred million people live in the shadow of fiery death, within striking range of one of Earth’s 500 historically active volcanoes. For Scottish volcanologist Andrew McGonigle, providing timely warning of an impending eruption is a goal that is both humanitarian and scientific.

A bridge to the future

Rolex has had a long, mutually rewarding relationship with the EPFL, the world-leading Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne.

An education in precision

Faced with a shortage of skilled watchmakers in the United States, Rolex built a school in 2001 to train a new generation of young specialists to service high-quality mechanical wristwatches.

Chasing the secrets of the universe

A mutual pursuit of excellence forged links between Rolex and CERN, the European particle physics laboratory, that date back to the late 1950s.

Medical alerts from a sticker on your hand

From creating a pain-free vaccine patch, Australian scientist Mark Kendall is now developing microwearable devices that send early warnings when patients are experiencing events like heart attacks.

Help paralysed people walk again

For scientist Grégoire Courtine, a broken back need no longer be a barrier to motion. Discover how his neuroprosthetic "bridge" is helping the paralysed walk again.

Rapid malaria testing with no blood sample

Ugandan IT specialist Brian Gitta has developed a portable device that detects malaria without a blood sample. Discover more about this powerful new medical technology.

Recycling unrecyclable plastic waste - Rolex Awards

Miranda Wang is developing unique technologies to turn plastic waste into valuable chemicals. Discover how her company is pioneering answers to the plastics crisis.

Women doctors for telemedicine in Pakistan

Dr Sara Saeed is pairing female doctors with digital technology for remote access to healthcare. Discover how her telemedicine model saves lives and empowers women.

Electronic ‘ears’ listen to world’s rainforests - Rolex Awards

Topher White is offering scientists a way to study the health of rainforest wildlife populations. Discover how old technology is leading to innovative conservation.

Vision for Africa - Rolex Awards

Most of the world’s 285 million visually impaired people live in low-income countries, often in areas where there is little access to diagnosis or treatment. British ophthalmologist Andrew Bastawrous is radically changing eye care in sub-Saharan Africa with a portable examination system based on smartphones.

Software that cuts food waste - Rolex Awards

Going hungry is a daily reality for an estimated 13 million Nigerians – but an enterprising software engineer is aiming to alleviate their suffering through a software service that redistributes food to people in need and reduces waste at the same time.

Connecting the world with signs - Rolex Awards

Seventy million people worldwide use sign languages. They are divided by 126 different languages, each with its own vocabulary. However, there are very few dictionaries to bridge the gaps between these languages. A Japanese entrepreneur is creating an online sign-language dictionary to help deaf communities across the world converse.

2019 Frequently Asked Questions - The Rolex Awards

The Rolex Awards identify and invest in exceptional people around the world who are carrying out pioneering projects. Find out more about the Awards now.

The Rolex Awards - The next chapter

The Rolex Awards identify and invest in exceptional people around the world who are carrying out pioneering projects. Find out more about the Awards now.

Rolex.org - Rolex Awards

For four decades, the Rolex Awards for Enterprise have supported individuals with original ideas who are determined to make the world a better place. Over 100 men and women have been singled out for their spirit of enterprise.

Forecasting volcanic eruptions - Rolex Awards

Millions of people live in the shadow of active volcanoes but Scottish physicist Andrew McGonigle is using drones to develop ways to predict eruptions.

Forecasting volcanic eruptions - Video

Scottish physicist Andrew McGonigle is developing a reliable way to predict eruptions, using an unmanned, small-scale helicopter to measure gases that escape from volcanic vents. His combination of science and advanced technology has the potential to save thousands of lives.

Taking a volcano’s pulse - Video

Eight hundred million people live in the shadow of fiery death, within striking range of one of Earth’s 500 historically active volcanoes. For Scottish volcanologist Andrew McGonigle, providing timely warning of an impending eruption is a goal that is both humanitarian and scientific.

Medical alerts from a sticker on your hand - Video

Biomedical engineer and 2012 Rolex Laureate Mark Kendall is on a mission to revolutionize modern medicine.

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Bicycle ride to a new life? - Video

By giving new life to used bicycles, David Schweidenback, who won a Rolex Award in 2000, is improving the lives of people in many developing countries. Pedals for Progress, the organisation he founded in 1991, has collected and exported more than 159,000 bikes – and has extended its activities to sewing-machines and new spare parts.

Women doctors for telemedicine in Pakistan - Video

Women doctors for telemedicine in Pakistan

A vaccine revolution - Rolex Awards

Biomedical engineer Mark Kendall is revolutionizing the way life-saving vaccines are delivered, lowering the cost of immunization in the developing world and dispensing with the needle and syringe.

Bicycle ride to a new life - Rolex Awards

By recycling discarded bicycles, David Schweidenback is giving people in the developing world the means to pursue employment, commerce and education.

A mobile lifeline for mothers

Saving the lives of mothers and babies who lack emergency obstetric care is the life’s calling of Aggrey Otieno, who is empowering impoverished Nairobi slum-dwellers through a telemedicine centre.

Waging war on superbugs

Multi-drug resistant bacteria are threatening the gains of modern medicine. Hosam Zowawi is fighting back with rapid superbug tests and a communications plan for the Gulf states.

Rolex.org - Science all projects

Rolex.org - Rolex Awards for Enterprise all projects

For four decades, the Rolex Awards for Enterprise have supported individuals with original ideas. Discover more.

Rolex.org - Science

The science of precision has inspired the creation of Rolex chronometers for five generations – precision that is founded in a scientific understanding of time and materials, their origins and interaction with one another.

A vaccine revolution - Video

Professor Mark Kendall is working on the development of the needle-free ‘Nanopatch’, to revolutionize delivery of vaccines in the developing world making them cheaper and potentially saving the lives of the millions of people who die from infectious diseases.

From taxis to beetles - Video

Pierre Morvan, a self-taught expert on insects, has made his mark in science by exploring insect populations in a region often out of bounds to professional scientists – the isolated and inaccessible regions of the Himalayas..

Safe lamps save lives - Video

For more than a decade, a resolute surgeon in Sri Lanka has battled apathy and ignorance to save people from disfigurement and death by fire caused by home-made lamps. Wijaya Godakumbura, who won a Rolex Award in 1998, has a simple solution to this devastating problem — the Safe Bottle Lamp.

Roadside rescue - Video

Piyush Tewari is determined to save thousands of lives by ensuring that most accident victims in Delhi receive rapid medical care. His foundation, in partnership with hospitals and a medical science institute, has already provided training sessions in basic life support to over 2,000 police officers, as well as 500 ordinary citizens.

The hand puppet that saves lives - Video

Bruktawit Tigabu will produce new episodes of Tsehai Loves Learning to teach preschool children and their parents basic health education. The programme uses songs, stories and simple graphics to make health concepts easy to grasp.

A mobile lifeline for mothers - Video

Aggrey Otieno will build a telemedicine centre with a 24-hour, on-call doctor and van in a Nairobi slum, thereby helping to save the lives of mothers and babies who lack access to emergency obstetric care.

Promoting propagation - Video

Billy Lee Lasley’s invention of a non-invasive method for determining the sex of birds — designed to help protect endangered species such as eagles — has slowly been adopted by researchers around the world. Perhaps more importantly, his work has proved to have other uses, including monitoring the reproductive health of women exposed to chemicals in the environment.

Rapid malaria testing with no blood sample - Video

Rapid malaria testing with no blood sample

Vital role for ancient medicine - Video

Tibetan medicine has been practised for more than 1,000 years in Ladakh, in India’s far north. The very survival of this complex system of healing, ritual and belief — known as Amchi medicine — was threatened by the 20th century’s huge social changes. But over the past six years French anthropologist and ethno-pharmacologist Laurent Pordié has led a campaign that will help ensure Ladakhis continue to benefit from Amchi medicine for generations to come.

Help paralysed people walk again - Video

Help paralysed people walk again

Waging war on superbugs - Video

Superbugs, resistant to antibiotics, are a threat to humanity. Saudi Arabian microbiologist Hosam Zowawi is combating the misuse of antibiotics by developing groundbreaking diagnostic tests and an awareness campaign in the Gulf states.

Doctor to the world - Video

Physician Aldo Lo Curto has worked as a doctor in almost 40 countries in the past 20 years, putting himself at the service of humanity. This "volunteer travelling doctor" and 1993 Rolex Laureate spends half the year in his medical practice in Canzo, in northern Italy, and the rest of his time healing, teaching and living among indigenous people on several continents.

Ship of hope - Video

After years of preparation, engineer-turned-sailor Jacques Luc Autran set sail in 1987 on the Listaos, a rebuilt trawler, for the Indian Ocean and the isolated archipelagos that dot this area. Supported by the association Seamen without Borders, which he created, Jacques embarked on a series of journeys that would fulfil a long-held dream: to bring medical relief, technical assistance and food to communities cut off from civilization by the sea.

The call of the wild - Video

Englishman Les Stocker won a Rolex Award in 1990 to establish Europe’s first wildlife teaching hospital. The hospital was soon set up and continues to expand, but along the way Stocker has achieved much more, becoming a highly respected expert on first aid and rehabilitation for sick and injured wild animals.

Helping children to build a new world - Video

Through her environmental education park, young visionary Maritza Morales Casanova hopes to inspire a generation of young people to care for the Yucatán’s fragile environment.

Citizen scientist - Video

Forrest Mims III calls himself a "citizen scientist" – he has a degree in government, but no formal scientific qualifications. Yet he possesses a rare breadth of scientific and technical expertise in an age of narrow professionalism. One of his greatest achievements has been to set up a network to monitor ultraviolet radiation and ozone levels, using a hand-held device he invented himself..

Footprints to the past - Video

Argentinian palaeontologist and geologist Teresa Manera de Bianco is struggling to save a unique collection of animal footprints made 12,000 years ago. The three-kilometre-long site is now part of the Atlantic coastline near Teresa’s home, but 12,000 years ago it was an inland pond teeming with birds and mammals.

Telling ancient tales - Video

Italian social entrepreneur Selene Biffi has set up a storytelling school in Kabul that will preserve Afghanistan’s rich oral heritage and spread crucial development information.

School on the taiga - Video

In south-eastern Siberia, a nomadic people are trying to preserve their way of life against the march of modern society. For eight years Alexandra Lavrillier, a brilliant French ethnologist, has been fighting alongside them to save their heritage, setting up a nomadic school that will give Evenk children the chance to receive a modern education without having to sacrifice their ancestral traditions.

Software that cuts food waste - Video

Oscar Ekponimo, of Nigeria, is solving an old problem – malnutrition caused by poverty – with a 21st century invention. His cloud-based app, Chowberry, alerts retailers when products reach the end of shelf life. Discounted food can then be offered to relief agencies, cutting waste. Ekponimo, who suffered from hunger as a child, developed his app to help the millions of Nigerians who do not get enough to eat.

Technology for all - Video

Sumit Dagar is developing a Braille smartphone that will help India’s millions of blind people access the digital world.

Electronic ears to listen to the rainforests - Video

Technologist Topher White is giving scientists and conservationists a unique view of wildlife in the world’s rainforests – through an alert system he originally developed to detect illegal logging using old mobile phones.

Camel milk, anyone? - Video

When Nancy Abeiderrahmane opened Africa’s first camel milk dairy in Nouakchott in 1989, most Mauritanians wouldn’t think of buying — let alone drinking — processed milk from local livestock. Today, their attitudes are completely changed. Nancy, whose tenacity, drive and acumen are rarely matched, is behind this amazing transformation, and her work has made an important contribution to improving the quality of life in Mauritania.

Sounds cool - Video

Steven Garrett, a 1993 Rolex Award Laureate, has been developing sound-powered refrigeration equipment for over a decade with the ultimate hope that this environmentally friendly technology will find its way from his laboratory to everyone’s homes.

Taking a new track - Video

CyberTracker, the brainchild of 1998 Laureate Louis Liebenberg, is a handheld device originally developed to modernize the ancient skill of tracking. While it has proven highly successful for its original purpose, Louis has discovered that its software has revolutionary potential to reduce some of the negative impacts of climate change; CyberTracker technology can monitor, predict and help prevent irreversible damage to our ecosystems.

Walking with robots - Video

An Irish biomedical engineer based at Harvard, Conor Walsh is addressing the acute challenges faced by stroke victims as they learn to walk again. He is developing a soft robotic suit that can be worn under clothes and that trains muscles, limbs and joints to function again. This exciting new technology should revolutionize treatment for the millions of people who suffer from physical disabilities.

Recycling unrecyclable plastic waste - Video

If 25 year-old Canadian entrepreneur Miranda Wang fulfils her goal, a third of the world’s plastic waste – which now chokes landfills, rivers and oceans – could be converted into new wealth.

March of the micro-volunteers - Video

Tapping into the latest trends in information and telecommunications technology, Jacob Colker has combined volunteering, the internet and mobile phones to pioneer a new form of activism in which almost anyone with a smartphone can devote spare minutes — waiting for the bus or to see the doctor — to a useful charitable or scientific task.

Connecting the world with signs - Video

The world’s 70 million hearing-impaired people use 126 different languages, each with its own grammar and vocabulary. However, there are very few dictionaries to bridge the gaps between these languages. A Japanese entrepreneur, Junto Ohki, has created SLinto, an online sign-language dictionary that crowdsources signs –which are input with a special keyboard – to help deaf communities across the world converse.

Light for the world - Video

Electrical engineer Dave Irvine-Halliday realised that a single 0.1 watt, white-light emitting diode supplies enough light for a child to read by. The simple but revolutionary technology supplied to homes by his Light Up The World Foundation can light an entire rural village with less energy than that used by a single, conventional, 100 watt light bulb.

Cool food in the desert - Video

Nigerian teacher Mohammed Bah Abba was motivated by his concern for the rural poor and by his interest in indigenous African technology to seek a practical, local solution to these problems. His extremely simple and inexpensive earthenware "pot-in-pot" cooling device, based on a principle of physics already known in ancient Egypt, has revolutionized lives in this semi-desert area.

Vision for Africa - Video

Andrew Bastawrous is an ophthalmologist from England whose dream is to treat the millions of visually impaired people living in low-income countries. He has begun a project in remote areas of Kenya, where there is little eye care but good mobile phone technology. His solution is to use smartphones as a portable eye examination kit, and eventually make this technology available around the world.

Safe lamps save lives - Rolex Awards

Sri Lankan surgeon Wijaya Godakumbura battled apathy and ignorance to prevent people being disfigured by burns caused by unstable, home-made lamps. His invention, the Safe Bottle Lamp, has saved many lives.

A new kind of heart tablet - Video

Arthur Zang is revolutionizing cardiac care in Cameroon, where heart disease is rising. His invention – a tablet-computer heart monitor called a Cardio Pad – needs only mobile phone network coverage to diagnose heart disease anywhere, any time.

The hand puppet that saves lives - Rolex Awards

Appalled by the deaths of thousands of children from preventable diseases in her country, an Ethiopian schoolteacher invented an entertaining way to inform youngsters about hygiene.

From taxis to beetles - Rolex Awards

Pierre Morvan, who gave up driving taxis to become a world-renowned entomologist, has demonstrated how the study of ground beetles can improve our understanding of evolutionary change and how species are formed.

Ship of hope - Rolex Awards

French engineer-turned-sailor Jacques Luc Autran made a series of journeys to bring medical relief, technical assistance and food to communities cut off by the sea.

Roadside rescue - Rolex Awards

India has the highest number of road fatalities in the world, but thanks to Piyush Tewari, accident victims now have a much greater chance of receiving care at the scene – and surviving.

Vital role for ancient medicine - Rolex Awards

In remote Ladakh, a Tibetan herbal medicine has been prevented from dying out, thanks in part to the intervention of French ethno-pharmacologist Laurent Pordié.

Getting to the core - Rolex Awards

French glaciologist Bernard Francou extracted an ice core from deep inside an Andean glacier to provide an archive of climatic change over thousands of years.

Promoting propagation - Rolex Awards

Captive breeding is the last hope for some endangered birds. American Billy Lee Lasley was working as a research endocrinologist at the San Diego Zoo when he developed a non-invasive method for determining the sex of birds.

Doctor to the world - Rolex Awards

For almost four decades, physician Aldo Lo Curto has divided the year between his medical practice in northern Italy and making trips to heal, teach and live among the world’s indigenous people.

Helping children to build a new world - Rolex Awards

Through her environmental theme park, the visionary Mexican environmentalist Maritza Morales Casanova hopes to teach a generation of young people to care for the Yucatán’s fragile environment.

The call of the wild - Rolex Awards

After rescuing his first injured hedgehog in the 1970s, English accountant Les Stocker, transformed his veterinary hobby into a world famous wildlife teaching hospital.

Telling ancient tales - Rolex Awards

A young Italian woman has set up a storytelling school to preserve Afghanistan’s oral heritage, give hope to the country’s youth and spread crucial development information.

Footprints to the past - Rolex Awards

Prehistoric animal tracks at Pehuen Có in Argentina are threatened by rising sea levels and human destruction but the pioneering efforts of palaeontologist Teresa Manera de Bianco are helping to preserve them.

School on the taiga - Rolex Awards

Children in the wilds of Siberia no longer have to be separated from their parents to get an education thanks to Alexandra Lavrillier, who has established a mobile school that brings together a modern curriculum and the vanishing Evenk culture.

Fruit trees come in from the cold - Rolex Awards

In a few hours, overnight frost can destroy a crop of fruit. But a machine invented in Uruguay is providing a solution in orchards on several continents.

Sounds cool - Rolex Awards

American scientist Steven Garrett has developed sound-powered refrigeration equipment with the potential to eliminate chemicals that damage the ozone layer.

Technology for all - Rolex Awards

Millions of blind people in India have been left out of the smartphone revolution but designer Sumit Dagar is aiming to open the door to technology for them.

Taking a new track - Rolex Awards

Louis Liebenberg designed the CyberTracker to enable Kalahari Bushmen to record their observations of animals, but the technology has proved a highly versatile scientific tool.

Cool food in the desert - Rolex Awards

In a semi-arid land with no refrigeration, food perishes quickly, causing major problems for local people. But Mohammed Bah Abba, who came from a family of potters, had a spectacularly simple solution.

A gift from the sky - Rolex Awards

In many cities worldwide, rain is regarded as a nuisance to be quickly drained away. But not in Tokyo, where, thanks to a retired civil servant, people see rainwater as a precious commodity to be captured and used for daily life.

Camel milk, anyone? - Rolex Awards

Nancy Jones Abeiderrahmane opened Africa’s first camel milk dairy in Mauritania, bringing a paradigm shift for livestock husbandry and improving the quality of life for people living in her adoptive country.

Halting the locust plague - Rolex Awards

Locust swarms are capable of devouring vast fields of crops within hours. Geographer Frithjof Voss used satellite image mapping to detect locusts before they could wreak their havoc.

Stars in their eyes - Rolex Awards

Recognizing the magic and the science that exploring the heavens brings to school children, Gilbert Clark’s virtual observatory links hundreds of schools to the world’s most powerful telescopes.

Light for the world - Rolex Awards

In 1997 when Dave Irvine-Halliday saw children in Nepal trying to read in near-dark classrooms he resolved to light up remote villages using low-cost renewable energy.

Water drum eases burden - Rolex Awards

The Q Drum invented by South African architect Hans Hendrikse has improved the lives of many thousands in developing countries, providing a simple, easy means to transport up to 50 litres of water at a time.

March of the micro-volunteers - Rolex Awards

By combining old-fashioned altruism and 21st-century technology, a young trailblazer from California has given the world a new model for philanthropy.

A new kind of heart tablet - Rolex Awards

IT specialist Arthur Zang has used his technological know-how to invent and manufacture Africa’s first computer tablet to diagnose people with heart disease.

Walking with robots - Rolex Awards

By marrying textile science with robotics, Conor Walsh, an Irish biomedical engineer, and a team of experts at the Harvard Biodesign Lab are revolutionizing how patients worldwide recover from traumas such as stroke and learn to walk again.

Recycling rice husks into fuel - Rolex Awards

Huge piles of discarded rice husks clutter many farms in Asia. Inventor Alexis Belonio has found a way to put them to practical use, at the same time as reducing pollution and saving farmers’ money in the process.