Innovation

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  • Envisioning a Safer Eye Exam

    Envisioning a Safer Eye Exam

    This young inventor created a synthetic model eye to help medical students train for optical procedures. With more than two million working parts, the eye is considered the second most complex human organ after the brain. So how can medical students train for treating such a complicated and sensitive part of the body? That’s the…

  • Inventor creates tiny technologies for medicine; awarded $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize

    Inventor creates tiny technologies for medicine; awarded $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize

    CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Dr. Sangeeta Bhatia, biomedical engineer and professor at MIT, is the recipient of the 2014 $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize. Bhatia is recognized for designing and commercializing miniaturized technologies with applications to improve human health. The Lemelson-MIT Prize, celebrating its 20th year, honors outstanding mid-career inventors improving the world through technological invention and demonstrating a commitment to…

  • The Lemelson Foundation funds establishment of pre-eminent design and prototyping facility in East Africa

    The Lemelson Foundation funds establishment of pre-eminent design and prototyping facility in East Africa

    Portland, OR– The Lemelson Foundation, the world’s leading funder of invention in service of social and economic change, today announced it will play a founding role in the establishment of a first-of-its-kind professional engineering and prototyping space in Nairobi, Kenya. The initiative, called Gearbox, will cater to scalable, invention-based enterprises aiming to prototype and manufacture world-class products…

  • Lemelson-MIT National Collegiate Student Prize competition winners announced

    Lemelson-MIT National Collegiate Student Prize competition winners announced

    Cambridge, Mass.– The Lemelson-MIT Program today announced winners of the Lemelson-MIT National Collegiate Student Prize Competition (NCSPC), a nationwide search for the most inventive undergraduate and graduate students. The Lemelson-MIT Program awarded $50,000 in prizes, with winning undergraduate teams receiving $10,000 in two categories and graduate student winners receiving $15,000 in two categories. The winners of…

  • High School teams receive Lemelson-MIT InvenTeam grants

    High School teams receive Lemelson-MIT InvenTeam grants

    Cambridge, Mass. — The Lemelson-MIT Program today announced it is awarding 15 teams of high school students up to $10,000 each in grant funding as part of its 2013-2014 InvenTeam initiative. The Lemelson-MIT Program provides a select group of high school students with the opportunity to show what is possible in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM); areas known to play…

  • The Lemelson Center’s Spark!Lab

    The Lemelson Center’s Spark!Lab

    Spark!Lab reveals the real story behind inventors’ work through hands-on activities that help kids and families learn about the history and process of invention. Opened by the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History on November 21, 2008, Spark!Lab welcomed more than 600,000 visitors, introduced…

  • 2013 Lemelson-MIT Prize winner borrows ideas from nature to tackle key societal challenges; awarded $500,000 Lemelson-MIT prize for work

    2013 Lemelson-MIT Prize winner borrows ideas from nature to tackle key societal challenges; awarded $500,000 Lemelson-MIT prize for work

    Cambridge, Mass – Dr. Angela Belcher, a materials chemist and one of the world’s leading scientists in nanotechnology, was announced today as the recipient of the 2013 $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize. Belcher has drawn inspiration from nature and its ability to create materials. She believes that if organic and inorganic materials can combine in nature to produce exquisite…

  • Lemelson-MIT Program honors inventors bringing life-saving health solutions to the developing world

    Lemelson-MIT Program honors inventors bringing life-saving health solutions to the developing world

    Our partners at the Lemelson-MIT Program today announced Rebecca Richards-Kortum and Maria Oden as the joint recipients of the 2013 $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Global Innovation in recognition of their work in developing inventions — in collaboration with their university students at Rice University — that improve access to health innovations for the world’s poorest communities. Drs. Richards-Kortum and…

  • Cooper-Hewitt announced publication of white paper on social responsible design, supported by The Lemelson Foundation

    Cooper-Hewitt announced publication of white paper on social responsible design, supported by The Lemelson Foundation

    The Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum today announced the publication of the white paper Design and Social Impact: A cross-sectoral agenda for design education, research and practice, along with a panel discussion on the paper’s findings and proposals to be held Feb. 21 in New York. The paper is an outgrowth of the 2012 Social Impact…

  • USAID/The Lemelson foundation partnership award NCIIA to help translate innovations to impact

    USAID/The Lemelson foundation partnership award NCIIA to help translate innovations to impact

    Ottawa, ON— Today at the Grand Challenges meeting in Ottawa, Canada, Wendy Taylor, Director, Center for Accelerating Innovation and Impact at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Carol Dahl, Executive Director of The Lemelson Foundation, announced a partnership between USAID and The Lemelson Foundation to award more than $700,000 to the National Collegiate…

  • The Lemelson Foundation announces $24 million to inspire and educate the next generation of inventors

    The Lemelson Foundation announces $24 million to inspire and educate the next generation of inventors

    Portland, OR—Today, The Lemelson Foundation announced it is awarding more than $24 million to two organizations in order to inspire and educate the next generation of inventors with the knowledge and skills necessary to transform their ideas into inventions and those inventions into enterprises that improve lives and stimulate the economy. The Lemelson-MIT Program, at the…

  • Dr. Stephen Quake wins the 2012 $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize

    Dr. Stephen Quake wins the 2012 $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize

    Congratulations to prolific inventor Dr. Stephen Quake, recipient of the 2012 $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize. An adventurer at heart, Quake relishes in the adrenaline that comes from mountain biking and ski mountaineering. It is that same rush he gets from exploring the unknown that drives him to consistently push scientific limits. Quake is being recognized for his…

  • Dr. Ashok Gadgil wins 2012 $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Global Innovation

    Dr. Ashok Gadgil wins 2012 $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Global Innovation

    Congratulations to Dr. Ashok Gadgil, recipient of the 2012 $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Global Innovation in recognition of his steady pursuit to blend research, invention, and humanitarianism for broad social impact. Gadgil is a chair professor of Safe Water and Sanitation at the University of California, Berkeley, and director of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division at Lawrence…