Swiss watchmaker Rolex announced the winners of the Rolex Awards for Enterprise earlier in June.

The five new Rolex Awards Laureates will receive financial means and other benefits to support their projects that contribute to advancing human knowledge, people’s well-being, preservation of cultural heritage and the environment.

Excelling among 957 candidates from 111 countries, five laureates out of 10 finalists were finally chosen by the jury.

They are João Campos-Silvia, a Brazilian fisheries ecologist who is saving the giant arapaima from extinction, Grégoire Courtine, a French scientist who is developing a revolutionary approach to help people with paralysis walk again, Brian Gitta, a Ugandan entrepreneur whose company invented a device to quickly test malaria, Krithi Karanth, an Indian conservation scientist who helps reduce friction between wildlife and residents around Indian national parks and Miranda Wang, a Canadian molecular biologist who discovered the process of turning plastic waste into valuable chemicals.

Read also: Rolex becomes official timekeeper of US Open

A statement released by Rolex said that this year’s Rolex awards also marked a change of history, as the public was also invited to vote for its favorite projects. The results of the public vote were then taken into consideration for the jury’s final decision.

The Rolex Awards were first inaugurated in 1976 by then-chairman of Rolex, André J. Heiniger, to mark the golden anniversary of the brand’s waterproof wristwatch, the Rolex Oyster. As the awards gained international interest, the company made it an ongoing program, unlike the initial plan to have it as a once-only celebration. (vit/mut)

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