Martin Cooper and Raymond Samuel Tomlinson Prince of Asturias Award for Technical & Scientific Research 2009

At its meeting in Oviedo, the Jury for the 2009 Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research, made up of José Luis Álvarez Margaride, Juan Luis Arsuaga, Juan Ignacio Cirac, Pedro Miguel Echenique Landiríbar, Juliana Fariña González, Antonio Fernández-Rañada, Luis Fernández-Vega Sanz, Vicente Gotor, Santiago Grisolía, María del Carmen Maroto Vela, Petra Mateos-Aparicio, Amador Menéndez Velázquez, Rafael Nájera Morrondo, César Nombela Cano, Fernando Ortiz Maslloréns, Ana Pastor Julián, Miguel Ángel Pesquera, Eduardo Punset Casals, José Ramón Quirós García, Julio Rodríguez Villanueva, Guillermo Suárez Fernández, chaired by Enrique Moreno and with José Antonio Martínez-Álvarez acting as secretary, has unanimously decided to bestow the 2009 Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research on the U.S. researchers, Martin Cooper and Raymond Samuel Tomlinson, respectively considered the fathers of the mobile phone and e-mail.

These two discoveries are among the greatest technological innovations of our time, revolutionizing the way that thousands of millions of people communicate worldwide and contributing decisively to the advancement of knowledge. In particular, they are key elements for achieving the United Nations "Millennium Development Goals" that will enable every citizen on the planet to exercise their right to communicate.

Their impact on society is reflected by the more than four thousand million mobile subscribers and the one thousand five hundred million users of e-mail and other Internet services. All this constitutes an important aid to the Developing Countries, for which it supposes a source of equality and opportunities, bringing nearer basic services such as health and education.

With this Award, the Jury also wishes to recognize the effort and work of all those people who have contributed to fostering and developing the mobile phone and e-mail services, forms of communication that give rise to a connected world, free from geographical or temporal barriers.

Oviedo, 17th June 2009