2012 Manning Innovation Award winners from BC, AB, MB, ON, PQ share $161 000 in prizes

CALGARY, Oct. 9, 2012 /CNW/ - The 2012 winners of Manning Innovation Awards, which has been honouring Canadian innovators for the past 31 years, were announced today by the President of the Ernest C. Manning Awards Foundation, David B. Mitchell. (www.manningawards.ca).

The 2012 winners, from British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebéc, share $161,000 in prizes. The awards will be presented at the 31st annual Manning Awards gala on Wednesday, October 17 at the Ottawa Convention Centre before an audience of more than 400 Canadian innovators and leaders from business, academia and government.  Senator Pamela Wallin, O.C., S.O.M., and the Hon. James Moore will co-host the awards ceremony.

Manning Award winners are selected by a distinguished independent selection committee chaired by Dr. Robert Fournier, Dalhousie University.  Selection committee members are established leaders and authorities from various disciplines. They are supported in the selection process by experts in fields as diverse as medicine, genetics, engineering, industrial processes and social entrepreneurship.

Innovations created by the 2012 Manning Innovation Award winners range from a blood transfusion management system now being used by two countries and many of the world's leading hospitals; a medical imaging scanner developed in Sherbrooke, Quebec which is being heralded as a break-through medical research tool; compostable utensils made from wood veneer manufactured in the BC interior; and,  plant nutrition products developed in Manitoba,  sold all over the world, that are having a massive impact in crop production.

There are four Young Canadian awards winners, all high school students, being honoured at the awards gala who competed in the Canada-Wide Science Fair earlier this year . They are from British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario. Three of the recipients are now part of important research teams in their hometowns.

The 2012 Ernest C. Manning Awards Foundation award recipients are:

• Geoffrey  Auchinleck, Vancouver BC, $100,000 Encana Principal Award, for developing and commercializing BloodTrack® Blood Transfusion Management System now being adopted as the sole blood-management system for  two countries and 180 large hospitals throughout the world;
  
  
• Dr. Roger Lecomte and Dr. Réjean Fountaine, Sherbrooke, PQ, $25,000 David E. Mitchell Award of Distinction, for developing the LabPET™  - Digital PET Scanner, a highly sophisticated diagnostic tool essential for molecular imaging now being used in 40 of the world's largest research labs and universities;
  
  
• Geoff Gyles and Kerry Green, Wolf Trax DDP Micronutrient Technology, Winnipeg, MB,  $10,000 Manning Innovation Award, for significantly improving the world of agriculture fertilizers with their patented fertilizer coating technology and patented micronutrient dual-action availability. Their products are now being sold in 14 countries and 75 regulatory jurisdictions;
  
  
• Terry Bigsby, Vernon, BC, $10,000 Manning Innovation Award, for developing Aspenware®, laminated compostable utensils made from wood veneers and for developing the patented commercial process and equipment to produce 35,000 units per hour.  The utensils are now being sold throughout Canada;
  
  
• Kelcie Miller-Anderson, 17, Calgary, AB for her Canada-Wide Science Fair project which used residual fungus from the production of Oyster mushrooms to remediate tailings ponds of Canada's oil sands; ($4,000 Young Canadian Award);
  
  
• Adelina Cozma, grade 11, Richmond Hill, ON for her Canada-Wide Science Fair project which investigated the brain spatio-temporal dynamics involved in learning novel language words using magnetoencephalography and magnetic resonance imaging; ($4,000 Young Canadian Award);
  
  
• Eric LeGresley, grade 11, Chilliwack, BC for his Canada-Wide Science Fair project which zeroed in on ways to improve the screening process and development timing of potential new antiviral treatments as influenza viruses become more immune to the antivirals that are currently available; ($4,000 Young Canadian Award);
  
  
• Carlos Xu, Grade 11, Vancouver BC for his Canada-Wide Science Fair project Fair which examined Neutron star system behaviours. Carlos's mathematical models of the gravitomagnetic current and field inside a neutron star challenged previous research that suggested gravitomagnetic fields from companion stars will be repelled.  ($4,000 Young Canadian Award).

In announcing the ten 2012 winners, Foundation President David B. Mitchell said, "This Foundation celebrates and draws attention to Canadian innovators of all ages. These are Canadians who have the imagination to innovate and the stamina to succeed. Each year, we are inspired as we hear about the winners' journeys of innovation," he said.

Profiles of the 2012 adult Manning Innovation Award winner are featured in this week's Maclean's Magazine (www.macleans.com).  The Manning Awards website (www.manningawards.ca) has winner profiles.

Nominations for Manning Awards are open to any resident Canadian citizen.  Award criteria and nomination forms are available at www.manningawards.ca.  Deadline for the 2013 Manning Awards is December 3, 2012.   Over the past 31 years, close to 250 Canadians have received Manning Awards and more than 2,500 have been honoured by being nominated. The Foundation is named after the late Alberta Premier and Senator.

NOTES FOR MEDIA....

More about Geoffrey  Auchinleck, Vancouver BC: The 2012  recipient of the Encana $100,000 Principal Award is fifth-generation British Columbian, Geoffrey Auchinleck.  The UBC Engineering Physicist developed a blood transfusion management system that is changing the way blood is managed in hospitals all over the world. Mr. Auchinleck's patented-system, BloodTrack®, tracks and controls the movement and transfusion of blood all the way from the blood bank to the patient's vein using barcodes and mobile computers.  His HemoSafe blood 'vending machines' that look like large wine coolers, provides just in time delivery of blood directly to operating rooms. www.haemonetics.com

Mr. Auchinleck, a serial innovator, has been part of a team that built the first robot ever designed to assist in surgery, new types of surgical drapes, surgical positioning systems, new designs for dermatomes, knee implant alignment tools, insufflators and various laboratory automation devices.  In 1997, he founded a software business with Neoteric Technology Limited.  Neoteric hit its stride with the BloodTrack® product.

More about Dr. Roger Lecomte and Dr. Réjean Fountaine, Sherbrooke, PQ: These two University of Sherbrooke professors and innovators developed one of the most important diagnostic tools now being used at research centres and hospitals, The LabPET™ - Digital PET Scanner. The scanner is a result of many innovations from its avalanche photodiode which can be made very small - down to a few millimeters to their innovations to read out the pixels in parallel.

More about Geoff Gyles and Kerry Green, Wolf Trax DDP Micronutrient Technology, Winnipeg, MB: In the early 90s, these two Manitobans who both had careers in the Western Canadian fertilizer business, started looking for ways to deliver better and more efficient micronutrient products to farmers.  It took them 10 years, thousands of trials and three years of research to bring their line of patented micronutrient products to the market. The company's motto is 'Growing Forward'. It operates from the University of Manitoba's Smartpark where Research Road meets Innovation Drive www.wolftrax.com

More about Terry Bigsby, Aspenware®, Vernon, BC:  Former second-generation industrial arts teacher Terry Bigsby has a passion for wood, woodworking and mechanics. He is always looking for the next wood product. Terry found a use for readily available, totally compostable, renewable and cheap left over wood, like Aspen and Birch, (which are basically weeds).  He then developed commercial processes and equipment to produce 35,000 units per hour. Aspenware® now has 20 full-time employees operating in the BC interior. www.aspenware.ca

More about the Young Canadian Innovation Awards:  The Ernest C. Manning Awards Foundation Young Canadian Program was started in 1992 to draw attention to and support for young Canadians who are creating innovations. Winning students are chosen by a team of judges at the Canada-Wide Science fair each spring. Information on these winners can be found at www.manningawards.ca

SOURCE: Ernest C. Manning Awards Foundation

For further information:

Note to media:  High res photos and b-roll footage of winners available. For interviews with winners and Foundation spokesmen in English or French please contact: Rosemarie Enslin, Enslin Group, [e-mail], 403 245 8321 or 1 866 545 6206.