Asa Gudmundsdottir Wright Award Presented as Plans for New Icelandic Academy of Science & Innovation Announced
14.2.2025 17:35:00 CET | Business Wire | Press release
Recognizing Contributions to Science and Innovation
Iceland’s President, Halla Tomasdottir, presented the Asa Gudmundsdottir Wright Award at a ceremony at the presidential residence. This year’s recipients are G. Fertram Sigurjonsson, Founder and CEO of Kerecis, and Jon Atli Benediktsson, Rector of the University of Iceland. The award honors individuals who have made significant contributions to science and innovation in Iceland.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250214199674/en/
President Halla Tomasdottir and Kerecis Founder and CEO Fertram Sigurjonsson (Photo: Business Wire)
During the ceremony, plans were also announced for the establishment of the Icelandic Academy of Science & Innovation, into which the award recipients will be inducted as members. The academy will provide a platform for collaboration between researchers, entrepreneurs, industry representatives, and academia. It will uphold the tradition of the Asa Fund by granting annual awards and aims to foster dialogue, recognize achievements in science and technology, and contribute to policy discussions in these fields.
Modeled on similar institutions in the Nordic countries, the UK, and the US, the academy will include past and future Asa Award recipients as members. Its focus will be on strengthening connections between science and industry, supporting research and innovation, and advocating for policies that advance scientific and technological development.
As one of Iceland’s most prolific inventors G. Fertram Sigurjonsson was recognized for his work in medical technology and biotechnology, including for his role in developing intact fish-skin technology for wound repair and tissue regeneration at Kerecis.
Jon Atli Benediktsson was honored for his contributions to higher education and research, fostering collaboration between academia and industry. He has been recognized on Clarivate’s list of the world’s most influential researchers for seven consecutive years.
The Asa Gudmundsdottir Wright Fund was established in 1968 in connection with the 50th anniversary of the Icelandic Science Society. Since its inception, the fund has awarded honorary prizes to 56 individuals for significant scientific achievements in Iceland or on behalf of Iceland. While it continues to recognize excellence in science, it now also acknowledges achievements in innovation.
The fund is supported by sponsors including HS Orka, Orkuveita Reykjavíkur, and Oculis, whose contributions are greatly appreciated by the board.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250214199674/en/
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
WHOOP Names Dirk-Jan "DJ" van Hameren Chief Marketing Officer as Member Base Surpasses 3 Million8.7.2026 13:00:00 CEST | Press release
Former Nike Global CMO and two-time Olympian joins WHOOP amid record global acceleration WHOOP, the human performance company, today named Dirk-Jan "DJ" van Hameren as Chief Marketing Officer. The appointment comes as WHOOP surpasses 3 million members worldwide after adding its latest one million members in just seven months. The former Nike Global Chief Marketing Officer and two-time Olympian joins WHOOP to help build the world's defining global brand for human performance and proactive health. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260708877245/en/ WHOOP Names Dirk-Jan "DJ" van Hameren (left) Chief Marketing Officer as Member Base Surpasses 3 Million Van Hameren spent more than three decades at Nike, where he rose from the mailroom at the company's European headquarters to become one of the most influential marketing leaders in the world. He served as NIKE Inc.’s Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer
Endace and Artiza Networks Partner to Deliver Cybersecurity and Defense Solutions to the Japanese Market8.7.2026 13:00:00 CEST | Press release
Endace, a leading provider of always-on packet capture, network visibility, and packet forensics solutions, and Artiza Networks, Inc. ("Artiza"), a leading provider of telecommunications test, measurement, and network assurance solutions, today announced a partnership to deliver advanced cybersecurity and defense solutions to customers in Japan. “Artiza is exactly the partner we have been looking for to satisfy demand in Japan, with the right balance of expertise, and market reach,” said Stuart Wilson, CEO of Endace. Through this partnership, Artiza will offer Endace's packet capture, network recording, and packet forensics solutions to customers in Japan, including telecommunications operators, enterprises, government agencies, defense organizations, and critical infrastructure providers. Endace's EndaceProbe Analytics Platform provides highly scalable, always-on packet capture and recording capabilities across a wide range of network environments, including enterprise networks, data
HTEC Introduces “OneLoopAi” Redefining How Enterprises Scale AI Into Production8.7.2026 12:28:00 CEST | Press release
OneLoopAi is the first platform to provide end-to-end transparency between enterprise and partner on AI usage, resource utilization, costs, and value realized. HTEC, the global technology and engineering firm headquartered in Palo Alto, Silicon Valley, today announced it has launched HTEC OneLoopAi—a new platform and approach to managing AI execution and value realization. The platform brings real-time visibility into progress, transparency with customers, and acceleration to how AI is deployed and scaled into production. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260708166155/en/ HTEC, the global technology and engineering firm headquartered in Palo Alto, Silicon Valley, today announced it has launched HTEC OneLoopAi—a new platform and approach to managing AI execution and value realization. The platform brings real-time visibility into progress, transparency with customers, and acceleration to how AI is deployed and sc
Robbyant Upgrades and Open-Sources LingBot-VLA 2.0 as a Next-Generation Universal Brain for Embodied AI8.7.2026 10:11:00 CEST | Press release
Robbyant, an embodied AI company within Ant Group, today announced the upgrade and open-source release of LingBot-VLA 2.0. Building upon the foundation of LingBot-VLA 1.0 released in January 2026, this next-generation vision-language-action (VLA) model delivers significant leaps in morphological generalization, degrees of freedom (DoF) support, and deployment efficiency, delivering a more advanced “universal brain” for scalable real-world robotics. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260707394646/en/ LingBot-VLA 2.0 supports a wide range of robot morphologies While the embodied AI industry is witnessing rapid advancements in hardware and control systems, the lack of a truly universal brain remains a primary bottleneck for industrial-scale deployment. LingBot-VLA 2.0 addresses this critical gap by dramatically expanding its pre-training data and architectural capabilities. LingBot-VLA 2.0 was pre-trained on 60,000
TetraMem and SK hynix Showcase Successful Technology Collaboration Advancing Memory-Centric AI Computing8.7.2026 10:06:00 CEST | Press release
Joint achievement highlights how Analog In-Memory Computing can address the growing energy and thermal challenges of AI while laying the foundation for deeper collaboration on next-generation memory and computing architectures. TetraMem Inc., a leader in Analog In-Memory Computing (A-IMC) technology, and SK hynix Inc., a global leader in AI memory and semiconductor technologies, today announced the successful completion of a joint technology collaboration, highlighted by the publication of their research paper, “A Memristor-based In-Memory Computing SoC with Efficient Depthwise Convolution,” in Advanced Intelligent Systems. The work has also been selected as the cover feature of the journal, recognizing its technical innovation and potential impact on next-generation AI computing. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260708244132/en/ The collaboration brings together SK hynix’s expertise in advanced memory technolo
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom