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This prize, which is under the high patronage of the President of Finland, is one of the world's highest awards for technology innovation. It is meant to "inspire and recognize innovations that can provide answers to the challenges of our times in terms of promoting both the quality of human life and accelerating sustainable development." Created in 2004, the prize is awarded every second year to individuals or groups. In this 2008 edition, the six finalists who belong to France, to the United Kingdom and to the United States, were selected from 99 candidates proposed from 88 organizations in 27 countries.

Emmanuel Desurvire from Thales Research & Technology (France) belongs to a group of two other finalists, Prof. David Payne from the University of Southampton (UK), and Randy Giles from Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs, Murray Hill, NJ (USA). They are recognized for the invention and conception of the erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA), a device whose function is to periodically boost signals in optical fiber cables, thus allowing transport of high-speed data over any distance around the globe. By its capability to boost at once wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) optical signals, the EDFA has revolutionized high-speed, long-distance and global communications. Today, the EDFA innovation and WDM implementation are unanimously recognized as the key enablers of the global Internet infrastructure and a plurality of broadband service applications.

The ultimate winner (or group of winners) will be announced on June 11^th, during the Millenium Technology Week (June 9-11th). The 800 000 € prize will be personally remitted to the winner (or winning group) by Her excellency Mrs. Tarja Halonen, President of the Republic of Finland, during a Grand Award Ceremony. 

About Emmanuel Desurvire

Emmanuel Desurvire has been involved in the field of optical communications for over 25 years. He obtained a M.S. degree in Theoretical Physics in 1981 from the University of Paris (Pierre et Marie Curie) and a Ph.D. in 1983 from the University of Nice for a work done at Thomson-CSF (now Thales) on Raman fiber amplifiers. In 1998, he obtained the title of Sc.D. from the same university.

From 1984 to1986, Emmanuel held a Post-Doctoral position at Stanford University, conducting  research on fiber-optic gyroscopes and amplified recirculating fiber memories. From 1986 to1990, he was a Member of Technical Staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories, where he led the early research on erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFA), which led to the discovery he is nominated for today From 1990 to1993, he was Associate Professor in Columbia University (NY).

In 1994, he joined Alcatel (now Alcatel-Lucent), leading research on soitons and all-optical regeneration for ultra-long-haul WDM systems. He then became Global Project Manager for 40Gbit/s DWDM systems. In 2000, he was appointed Director of the Alcatel Technical Academy and in 2004,  Director of business development through technology & patents licensing. In 2006, he returned to the Optics Division as Senior Director in the WDM-metro product group, in charge of innovation assessment in photonics technologies.

In 2007, he moved to Thales Research & Technology in Palaiseau (France) as Director of the Physics Research Group. He heads a group of 60 researchers in 6 laboratories, among which the Thales/CNRS joint research unit, whose scientific director is Albert Fert, the 2007 Physics Nobel Prize. The main research topics of this Group are spintronics, superconductivity, opto-electronics, microwave signal processing, carbon nanotubes, molecular electronics, photonic crystals, fiber lasers and quantum cryptography. 

An IEEE and Alcatel-Lucent-Bell-Labs Fellow, Emmanuel Desurvire has authored or co-authored over 200 technical publications and over 30 patents. He is the author of five reference books in the fields of EDFA, global telecoms and information theory. In 2007, he received the IEEE/LEOS John Tyndall Award, the France Telecom Prize from the French Academy of Sciences, and one "Engineer of the Year" award from the National Scientists & Engineers Council. Prior to these recognitions, Emmanuel received the 1994 prize from the International Commission for Optics, the 1998 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Engineering, the 1998 General Ferrié Grand Prize in Electronics, the 2005 IEEE/LEOS William Streifer Scientific Achievement Award, and a 2006 nomination as Thomson-Scientific Laureate. 

About Thales

Thales is a leading international group, addressing Defence, Aerospace and Security markets worldwide. Thales's expertise in its core markets spans the entire value chain, providing all the capabilities its customers require, from equipment and systems to comprehensive support services, and including prime contracting on large-scale programmes. Thales's leading-edge technology is supported by 22 000 R&D engineers who offer a capability unmatched in Europe to develop and deploy field-proven mission-critical information systems. To this end, the group's civil and military businesses develop in parallel and share a common base of technologies to serve a single objective: the security of people, property and nations. The group builds its growth on its unique multi-domestic strategy based on trusted partnerships with national customers and market players, while leveraging its global expertise to support local technology and industrial development. Thales employs 68 000 people in 50 countries with revenues in 2007 of € 12.3 billion.