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| Dave Irvine-Halliday plans to use his $100,000 US prize to help attract sponsors to his volunteer-driven program. |
Calgary engineering professor Dave Irvine-Halliday has a bright, shining goal. He wants to equip up to one million homes and schools in some of the world’s poorest villages with inexpensive lighting systems.
Accordingly, he’ll be using the $100,000 US prize money from the prestigious Rolex Award for Enterprise he recently won to help his volunteer-driven Light Up The World (LUTW) Foundation attract more sponsors.
Irvine-Halliday, 60, founded LUTW after a 1997 trip to a Nepalese village, where he saw how the lack of lighting affected children’s ability to read and learn at night. The University of Calgary professor eventually developed a lighting system based on white-light emitting diodes, which can light up an entire village with less energy than that used by a single, conventional 100-watt lightbulb.
By the end of 2001, LUTW’s rechargeable, energy-efficient and environmentally friendly systems were lighting up 700 homes and buildings in remote villages in Nepal, India and Sri Lanka.
Established in 1976, the Rolex awards aim to encourage a spirit of enterprise in individuals around the globe by providing support to implement visionary projects that advance human well-being.
Web watch:
www.lutw.org
