Archives of the Mayor's Press Office

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: Wednesday, May 6, 1998

Release #202-98

Contact: Colleen Roche (212) 788-2958 or Dwight Williams (212) 788-2972


MAYOR GIULIANI GREETS THE FINALISTS FOR THE DISCOVER AWARDS FOR TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani today congratulated the five New York finalists of the 1998 Discover Magazine Awards for Technological Innovation. The ninth annual award ceremony, honoring the inventors and engineers of the technological age who are responsible for the advances that enrich modern life, will be held June 6, 1998 at Florida's Epcot Center.

"It is truly a pleasure to welcome some of the great minds of science to City Hall," Mayor Giuliani said. "The finalists of the Discover Awards for Technology Innovation have all made their own unique contribution to science. Their technological achievements will have a dramatic impact on medicine, genetics, finance and the television and film industry. These scientists have dedicated their lives to making our world that much better. On behalf of all New Yorkers, I want to congratulate these finalists and all scientific innovators who continue to amaze us with their new discoveries."

From over 4,000 entries, Discover Magazine has selected 40 finalists from around the world. An expert panel of judges will now choose winners in nine categories: environment; aviation and aerospace; transportation; computer hardware and electronics; computer software; sight; robotics; and sound. The Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation, an independent federal government agency established by Congress in 1992, will also award its annual $100,000 fellowship to one of the 40 finalists at the award ceremony.

Mayor Giuliani welcomed the following Discover Awards finalists to City Hall:

Marek Elbaum
Melanoma Early Detection System

Mr. Elbaum has invented the multispectral lesion imaging system, that can detect early melanoma and distinguish a cancerous mole from a benign one without painful biopsies.

M. Yamamichi
Digital Duo, Canon's Optura Digital Video Camera
Mr. Yamamichi has designed a camera that can take a still photo or a video image. He discovered a method to speed the video scanning process so that the camera always takes a full frame, allowing the user to switch between still photo mode and video mode.

Randy Isaac
Metal of Choice, IBM's Copper Chips
Randy Isaac and his colleagues designed a way to use microscopic copper wire in electronic chips. The new chips perform better and are cheaper to manufacture than previous versions.

C.J. Tan
The Black Box of Chess, IBM's Deep Blue
C.J. Tan developed Deep Blue, a computer that can examine 200 million chess moves every second. Deep Blue made international news when it defeated chess master Gary Kasparov.

Michael Heller
Memory Molecule, Nanogen's DNA Storage Device
Michael Heller coated the surface of a compact disk with synthetic DNA, allowing for increased storage. This technique could be used to expand computer memories by a factor of 1,000.

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