On this day, one year ago, something unimaginable happened. But, The X PRIZE Foundation is proud to announce that today, we have our final eight judges for our Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE!
We have been working extremely hard to develop this competition, and lay out what the actual test will look like. We have met with experts in oceanography, and in oil to determine the best way to present this, and we are pleased to announce the judges! Please see below an excerpt taken directly from the press release:
"The X PRIZE Foundation today announced its roster of judges for the $1.4 Million Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE. As the one year anniversary (April 20) of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill reminds us of last year’s tragedy, the X CHALLENGE’s goal of inspiring entrepreneurs, engineers, and scientists worldwide to develop innovative, rapidly deployable, and highly efficient methods of capturing crude oil from the ocean surface remains more relevant and timely than ever.
“This X CHALLENGE was developed as a result of the increasing awareness and disappointment at the inefficiency of our oil spill cleanup capabilities,” said Wendy Schmidt, President of The Schmidt Family Foundation and title sponsor of the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE. “As we look back on the last year and remember the disaster of the Gulf oil spill, I’m more optimistic than ever that this X CHALLENGE will help inspire new and innovative oil spill technologies that will allow us to respond faster and minimize the environmental impact of any future spills.”
“The Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE has received an overwhelming response since the competition was first announced and we’re amazed by the amount of teams and individuals who have expressed an interest in competing, particularly given the current relevance of oil spill cleanup technologies,” said Francis Beland, Vice President of Prize Development at the X PRIZE Foundation. “Our slate of judges brings a tremendous amount of knowledge and experience to this competition. We’re honored to have such an elite group of individuals working with us to determine our final group of competitors and to be on-hand to judge the testing at OHMSETT this summer.”
The members of the judging panel are experts in fields such as oceanography and the oil industry, and include:
- John Joe Dec, retired United States Coast Guard hazardous substance spill response professional;
- Eugene Johnson, retired United States Coast Guard Captain and former Chief of Marine Safety for the Fifth U.S. Coast Guard District;
- Hung Nguyen, of the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE);
- Skip Przelomski, Vice President and Senior Technical Advisor of the Clean Caribbean & Americas (CCA);
- Dennis Takahashi-Kelso, Executive Vice President of Ocean Conservancy;
- Donald A. Toenshoff, Jr., Executive Vice President of the Marine Spill Response Corporation;
- Peter K. Velez, Global Emergency Response Manager for Shell International Exploration and Production;
- and Dave Westerholm, Director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Response and Restoration"
To read more about Phases I and II of the competition, click to read the full press release.
Alex at X PRIZE
No comments:
Post a Comment