Dr. Laurie Marker, founder and Executive Director of the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), was awarded $50,000 by the Tech Museum of Innovation at the Tech Awards gala, held Nov. 12. The award recognized CCF’s Bushblok program, which uses a high-pressure extrusion process to convert invasive, habitat-destroying bush into a clean-burning fuel log, an economically viable alternative to existing products such as firewood, coal, lump charcoal and charcoal briquettes. Plans are underway to use the biomass to power electric plants to help energy-dependent Namibia manufacture its own electricity. Clearing invasive bush helps restore millions of acres of Namibian savannah to its original state and improve the habitat for both the cheetah and its prey.

Marker and CCF were one of five Tech Museum Laureates in the Intel Environment Award Category and 25 global innovators recognized by the Tech Awards for applying technology to benefit humanity and spark global change. The Tech Awards, presented by Applied Materials, Inc., selected Marker from among hundreds of nominations representing 68 countries. While five Laureates are nominated for each category, only one Laureate per category receives the $50,000 cash prize during the annual Awards Gala in San Jose, Calif. on November 12.

“Given the inspiring achievements of the other Tech Laureates, I'm incredibly honored that CCF received this award,” Marker said.  “I had thought that a simple fuel log that helps cheetahs and people would be too basic to be recognized by the Tech Museum, but that's exactly what was so amazing about all the Laureates—their ideas are simple yet revolutionary to the people whose lives they affect.”

Marker founded the non-profit Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) in 1990 and based its international center in Namibia, the country with the last large remaining wild cheetah population.   The world population of wild cheetahs is approximately 10,000 individuals and is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. For more information on CCF, visit www.cheetah.org.

The Tech Awards: Technology Benefiting Humanity is one of the premier annual humanitarian awards programs in the world, recognizing technical solutions that benefit humanity and address the most critical issues facing our planet and its people. The awards program honors 25 scientists and innovators annually alongside the recipient of the Global Humanitarian Award. Laureates are selected by a prestigious panel of international judges organized by the Center for Science, Technology, and Society at Santa Clara University, and made up of Santa Clara University faculty as well as leaders from educational and research institutions, industry and the public sector around the world.

About the Cheetah Conservation Fund
The Cheetah Conservation Fund, founded by Dr. Laurie Marker in 1990, is an international non-profit trust with offices in Namibia, Kenya, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada dedicated to the long-term survival of the cheetah and its ecosystems. 

Since 1990, the organization has developed education and conservation programs based on its bio-medical cheetah research studies, published scientific research papers and presented educational programs to more than 200,000 school children and 1,000 farmers. In addition, CCF has donated more than 280 livestock guarding dogs to commercial and communal farmers in Namibia as part of their innovative non-lethal livestock management program.

About The Tech Museum of Innovation
The Tech Museum of Innovation is a hands-on technology and science museum for people of all ages and backgrounds.  Located in San Jose, California – the Capital of Silicon Valley – its mission, as a public-benefit corporation, is to inspire the innovator in everyone. Through hands-on exhibits, educational programs, the annual Tech Challenge team competition for youth, and the internationally recognized Tech Awards, presented by Applied Materials, Inc., The Tech Museum of Innovation honors the past, celebrates the present, and encourages the development of innovative ideas for a more promising future.

Established in 2000, The Tech Awards recognize 25 Laureates in five universal categories: education, equality, environment, economic development and health. These Laureates have developed new technological solutions or innovative ways to use existing technologies to significantly improve the lives of people around the world.

This year, the 2008 Laureates represent the vision of the program, spanning countries such as Senegal, Peru, Hungary, Canada, Namibia, Germany, Egypt, India, United Kingdom, Laos and the United States. Their work impacts people in many more countries worldwide.

For more information about The Tech Museum of Innovation, visit www.thetech.org.

Photo Caption: Dr. Laurie Marker receiving the 2008 Intel Environment Prize from Mr. Craig Barrett, Chairman of the Board of Intel Corporation at the Tech Awards Gala.

To view a video about CCF's Bush Project, please visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsFDjM9F02c

http://www.cheetah.org