The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, today announced that Linux Creator and Linux Foundation Fellow Linus Torvalds is a Millennium Technology Prize laureate. This prize, determined by the Technology Academy of Finland, is one of the world's largest such prizes with candidates sought from across the world and from all fields of technology.

The Millennium Technology Prize is awarded every two years for innovations improving the quality of human life and encouraging sustainable development. Universities, research institutions, scientific and engineering academies, and high-tech companies from around the globe make nominations. The International Selection Committee, nominated by TAF Board, reviews the nominations and determines the year's laureates. The Board makes the final decision on who will be the recipients of the prize, which is together established by Finnish industry and state.The winner(s) of the 2012 Millennium Technology Prize will be awarded by the President of the Republic of Finland in a special ceremony, taking place June 13, 2012.

Previous winners include Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the world wide web; Professor Shuji Nakamura, inventor of new revolutionary light sources; Professor Robert Langer for his invention and development of innovative biomaterials for controlled drug release and tissue regeneration; and Professor Michael Gratzel for his innovative developments in dye-sensitized solar cells.

"The Millennium Technology Prize is like the Nobel Peace Prize of technology," said Jim Zemlin, executive director at The Linux Foundation. "Linus Torvalds embodies the innovation and collaborative spirit that this award stands for, and we congratulate him on this tremendous honor."


Linus Torvalds created Linux in 1991. Since then it has become the world's most ubiquitous operating system (OS): it powers the popular Android phones and eight out of 10 financial trades; it runs Amazon, Facebook, Google, Twitter and other major web networks. It is the dominant OS for supercomputers, supporting nine of 10 of these major systems, and is the preferable platform for cloud computing.