Nov 30 2007
The World Economic Forum today announced 39 visionary companies selected as Technology Pioneers 2008. SiGNa Chemistry has been selected as one of these Technology Pioneers. The Technology Pioneers 2008 were nominated by the world’s leading technology experts, including venture capitalists, technology companies, academics and media. The final selection from 273 nominees was made by a panel of leading technology experts appointed by the World Economic Forum. Technology Pioneers 2008 are invited to participate in the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2008 that will be held in Davos, Switzerland, from 23-27 January and in the Annual Meeting of the New Champions that will be held in Tianjin, People’s Republic of China from 25-27 September 2008.
SiGNa Chemistry has developed a suite of transformational green chemistry materials based on the company’s proprietary technology for nano-scale encapsulation of reactive metals. The powdered reactive metals drive improvements in safety, efficiency, and environmental sustainability across fundamental manufacturing processes in the pharmaceutical, petrochemical, and general synthesis industries. Additionally, the stable powders enable emerging clean technologies and processes including environmental remediation and fuel cells for which they produce record levels of pure hydrogen gas at room temperature. SiGNa Chemistry’s innovation represents the most significant advancement in reactive metal processing in more than a century.
“James L. Dye, a distinguished member of the National Academy of Sciences, and I founded SiGNa Chemistry with the express mission of transforming reactive metals from a lab hazard into a safe part of global industry’s clean chemistry toolkit. The World Economic Forum’s recognition of that vision and value is truly an honor,” said Michael Lefenfeld, president and CEO of SiGNa Chemistry. “The needs that our materials address are global in scale: energy, the environment and human health. This forum affords an invaluable opportunity to engage in the worldwide community of thought leaders and market visionaries that affect real change on that scale.”
Technology Pioneers are companies that have been identified as developing and applying highly transformational and innovative technologies in the areas of energy, biotechnology and health, and information technology. To be selected as a Technology Pioneer, a company must be involved in the development of life-changing technology innovation and have the potential for long-term impact on business and society. In addition, it must demonstrate visionary leadership, show all the signs of being a long-standing market leader – and its technology must be proven. Previous Technology Pioneers have included Business Objects, Cambridge Silicon Radio, Corel Corporation, Encore Software, Google, Mozilla Corporation and Napster.
The companies’ products and services include identity management on the Internet, understanding of individuals’ genetic information, robotic radiosurgery, pollution control materials, low-cost remote diagnosis solutions, virtual interface technologies, wiki-based projects and next-generation business intelligence solutions.
Twenty-three of the Technology Pioneers 2008 are US-based companies. Israel and the United Kingdom each boast three; Sweden and Switzerland two each; Canada, France, Germany, India, the Netherlands and Russia, one each. Technology Pioneers are nominated in three main categories: Energy/Environment, Biotechnology/Health and Information Technology.
The entire list of Technology Pioneers and interviews with the CEOs of the selected companies can be found here: http://www.weforum.org/techpioneers/2008.