Winners of the European Inventor Award 2018

On 7 June the European Patent Office (EPO) revealed the winners of the European Inventor Award 2018 at ceremony held in Paris, France.

The annually granted award recognises individuals and groups whose inventions have supported progress in techology, social and economic development or helped generate employment. This year, the winners were selected by an independent international jury from more than 500 candidates, whereas compared to earlier years, the highest number of women inventors were recognised.

The winners of the 2018 award are:

• in the industry category Agnès Poulbot and Jacques Barraud† (France) for an “Auto-regenerating” tyre tread;
• in the research category Jens Frahm (Germany) for a faster, real-time MRI (FLASH-method);
• in the non-EPO countries category Esther Sans Takeuchi (USA) for batteries to reset the heart;
• in the small and medium-sized enterprises category Jane ní Dhulchaointigh and team (Ireland) for Sugru: multi-purpose mouldable glue;
• in the popular prize category Loopstra (Netherlands) and Vadim Banine (Netherlands/Russia) for EUV lithography for smaller, more powerful microchips;
• in the lifetime achievement category Ursula Keller (Switzerland) for a method for turning continuous laser light into ultra-fast laser pulses.

Further information on the winners can be found on the European Patent Office’s website.