CAMBRIDGE: A scientist of Indian-origin recently bagged the prestigious Lemelson-MIT prize worth $ 500,000 for his groundbreaking invention. Ramesh Raskar, 46, founder of the Camera Culture research group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology won the award money for his radical imaging solutions including Femto-photography.
A media release confirmed the news saying, "Raskar is the winner of the 2-16 USD 500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize for his groundbreaking inventions, commitment to youth mentorship, and dedication to improving our world with practical yet innovative solutions." The Nasik-born has more than 75 patents to his name, and has also written over 120 reviewed publications. The media release said he combines the best of the academic and entrepreneurial worlds to achieve milestones in improving the lives and health of people in industrial and developing societies. Stephanie Couch, executive director of the Lemelson-MIT Program said, "Raskar is a multi-faceted leader as an inventor, educator, change maker and exemplar connector. In addition to creating his own remarkable inventions, he is working to connect communities and inventors all over the world to create positive change."
Accepting the prize money, Raskar said he plans to use a portion of the money to launch a new effort using peer-to-peer invention platforms that offer new approaches for helping young people in multiple countries to co-invent in a collaboratibe way. "Everyone has the power to solve problems and through peer-to-peer co-invention and purposeful collaboration, we can solve problems that will impact billions of lives."
