2012 Millennium Technology Prize goes to stem cell scientist Shinya Yamanaka
Yamanaka received the award jointly with Linus Torvalds, the developer of the the open source operating system, LINUX.
The comparison is startling. While Torvalds’ achievements are impressive, they are part of what I think is an inevitable progress of engineering once the science is known. Like the many others behind the world wide web, Torvalds is a historic figure in a great movement.
Biology also has contributions like those of Torvalds. Pioneers in biology, have often used existing knowledge to develop new therapies. While Robert Langer, a biomedical engineer known for drug delivery systems and other advances in biotechnology, won the award in 2008, Langer’s work is a very practical application of the work my field, vascular biology, has done since the 70s.
Yamanaks’s work, in contrast, is revolutionary and, I would argue, should lead to the Nobel Prize. In Star Trek terms, Yamamanak went where no man hjad gone before. He showed that we could reprogram any human cells .. in effect we are know able to recreate ourselves froma tiny but of DNA.
Because of Yamanaka, we now have the practical means not only to build new human tissues but entirely new insights into cancer.
I suggest that Yamanaka, if he does get the Nobel, will be recognized like Michelson Morley and the HUman Genome Project as representing one of those seminal events that change the course not only of science but of society.