download juror bios tearsheet: DISTINGUISHED JURORS [pdf 257k]

NOVEMBER 19th, 2007, NEW YORK CITY — The Buckminster Fuller Institute (BFI) is delighted to announce the selection of the final two jurors for the first BUCKMINSTER FULLER CHALLENGE, an international design science challenge which seeks to confer a prize of $100,000 to a single winning solution.

JANINE BENYUS and HUNTER LOVINS will join the five distinguished members of the 2007/2008 Challenge jury introduced previously. The full panel of jurors for the 2007/2008 Challenge is as follows: JANINE BENYUS, celebrated natural sciences writer, innovation consultant and author of six books including The New York Times bestseller Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. Co-Founder of The Biomimicry Institute; SIR NICHOLAS GRIMSHAW, renowned architect and President of the Royal Academy of Arts, London; HAZEL HENDERSON, futurist, author and consultant on sustainable human development and socially responsible business and investment; founder, Ethical Markets Media, llc; DANNY HILLIS visionary inventor, computer scientist, author, engineer; Chairman and CTO of Applied Minds, Inc., co-chairman of The Long Now Foundation; HUNTER LOVINS, President and founder of Natural Capitalism Solutions and co-author of nine books and hundreds of papers, including the 1999 bestseller Natural Capitalism; WILLIAM MCDONOUGH, sustainable design visionary, bestselling author, and founder of William McDonough + Partners, a leading architecture firm practicing cradle to cradle design; and VANDANA SHIVA, renowned physicist, author, and environmental activist, founder and Director, Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, New Delhi.

“It is very exciting to add these two important women to the extraordinary group of jurors that has come together for the 2007/2008 Challenge. I feel we are now able to confront fully the inspiring quality of the proposals themselves,” said Allegra Fuller Snyder, Fuller’s daughter and Chairwoman of the Buckminster Fuller Institute’s Board of Directors. “I only wish my father were still with us, to work with this group of what he would call ‘comprehensive anticipatory design scientists.’ I truly believe the results of this Challenge will herald a critical breakthrough.”

Inspired by the life and work of visionary 20th Century futurist and global thinker, R. Buckminster Fuller, The Buckminster Fuller Challenge seeks solutions that epitomize what Fuller called the trimtab principle. 250 entries have been received and the review process is underway. A team of three distinguished advisors [pdf 89k], each of whom have a deep knowledge of Fuller’s work and the approach to problem-solving he termed design science, will review submissions for compliance with the entry criteria and select a pool of outstanding quality to send to the jury.

The winner of the first Buckminster Fuller Challenge will receive their prize in late June 2008 at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.

For more information, visit http://challenge.bfi.org/jurors.php

download juror bios tearsheet: DISTINGUISHED JURORS [pdf 257k]