SA academic nominated for global tech award

South African academic Professor Guy Berger has been nominated for the prestigious 2003 World Technology Awards, announced The World Technology Network (WTN) on Tuesday.

The awards are being held in association with big international technology names such as Accenture, Microsoft, Time magazine, Business 2.0 magazine and US technology stock market, the Nasdaq.

The awards honour individuals and corporations from 20 technology-related sectors selected by their peers as being the innovators doing work of the greatest likely long-term significance.

Award categories range from biotechnology, space and energy through to ethics, design and entertainment. Berger was selected as a nominee in the media and journalism category.

James P Clark, founder and chairperson of the World Technology Network, says: “The World Technology Awards programme was created to recognise truly extraordinary innovation on a global scale, the sort of work that could be described as creating our collective future and changing our world. Prof Berger’s contribution in the field of journalism and media has been outstanding, and the nomination is just acknowledgement of that fact.”

Berger, who is head of Rhodes University’s journalism department and deputy chair of the South African National Editors Forum (Sanef), was previously nominated for his work in the “Highway Africa” project as a strategy to empower African journalists for the information age. In 2000, he won a Fulbright scholarship to the US, and in 2001/2, he secured a Fulbright Alumni Initiative Award.

Says Berger: “I feel rather humbled by the status of my fellow nominees, but also pleased that African media at least has a small presence in this competition, thanks to my nomination. It’s very easy for this continent to be marginalised on the global tech map.”

Winners will be announced on June 25 2003 in San Francisco at the conclusion of the two-day World Technology Summit.