GAME CHANGERS
MEET THE FIVE ROLEX LAUREATES, WHOSE INSPIRING PROJECTS WILL IMPROVE LIFE ON PLANET EARTH
KRITHI KARANTH, 40
The conservation scientist wants to reduce friction between wildlife and people living near Indian national parks. There are numerous cases of conflict between humans and animals every year, resulting in damage, injury and death on both sides. Karanth’s team aims to mitigate the situation by reducing threats, raising awareness of conservation, educating local communities and assisting with compensation claims through a toll- free helpline.
“We’ve implemented this system at a local level successfully and we want to scale it upwards,” she says. “We are now in two of India’s premier parks and we hope to move into six more parks. Fundamentally, the toll-free helpline can be systemised. What is more important: if someone calls, you have to show up at the scene soon after. We are happy to share this idea with anyone in the world.”
GRÉGOIRE COURTINE, 44
The Switzerland-based French scientist has met many young people paralysed by serious sports injuries. An avid sportsman himself, he is developing an electronic bridge to be implanted between a patient’s brain and lumbar spinal cord. The bridge, supported by wireless technology, will link brain signals controlling voluntary movement with electrical stimulation of the lower spinal cord. This has the potential to encourage nerve regrowth and restore control of the legs. “If treatment is started early, then there is a good chance of recovery,” he says. “It will help the paralysed to walk and their nerve fibres to grow again, so an individual can walk without electrical stimulation.”
BRIAN GITTA (RIGHT), 26
Life- threatening Malaria is prevalent worldwide and the key to treating it is early detection. Many people, especially children, die from it because accurate test results take time to process, which leads to delayed treatment. The Ugandan technologist is working on a novel low-cost portable device that uses light and magnets to give a reliable reading without drawing blood. “The device can be supplied to district and national hospitals,” he says. “Right now, it’s 80 per cent accurate, and we and are aiming to get it to be 90 per cent accurate.”
JOÃO CAMPOS-SILVA, 36
The giant arapaima, the world’s largest scaled freshwater fish, faces extinction due to overfishing and other effects of human activity. The Brazilian fisheries biologist is working closely with local communities and fishing leaders to save it. After seeing a 30- fold recovery in arapaima numbers in South America’s Juruá River, he plans to extend the plan to 60 other communities to help save their livelihoods, food supply and culture. “Arapaima management brings in good income [for the local communities], and protects the forest and ensures its development,” he says. “This model is not a top‑down strategy but a bottom-up one.”
MIRANDA WANG, 25
Much of the plastic waste we produce cannot be recycled, ending up in landfills and polluting the environment. The Canadian entrepreneur and molecular biologist has invented an upcycling process that breaks non-recyclable polyethylene plastic waste down into simpler chemical compounds that can be used in industrial and consumer products. “We’ve invented a new process that’s sustainable and economical for making high-value industrial chemicals from these plastics,” she says.
it is inscribed on the dial of every Oyster watch built at Rolex’s manufactures in Switzerland—a reminder of the high performance one can expect from a Rolex timepiece. Perpetual, or never-ending by definition, is also the goal the watchmaker has for the Earth.
Since the 1930s, brand founder Hans Wilsdorf has supported explorers’ ventures into the most extreme places on Earth to discover more about the world. Rolex watches have always accompanied these brave souls on their challenging expeditions and served as reliable tools. As time evolved, the premise behind such exploratory journeys changed, with explorers and scientists going into the unknown to unearth new means to preserve the natural world. The Perpetual Planet campaign is Rolex’s way of continuing Wilsdorf ’s legacy in making the Earth a better place to live in—or making the planet perpetual.
As well as the inclusion of the Rolex Awards for Enterprise, the brand will also boost its collaboration with the National Geographic Society as part of the campaign, with the organisations planning three expeditions to collect data on climate change in extreme environments. The alliance between Rolex and the society was also behind the decision to hold this year’s awards ceremony in Washington as the closing act of the week-long National Geographic Explorers Festival.
The last pillar of Rolex’s Perpetual Planet campaign takes the form of veteran marine conservationist Sylvia Earle’s Mission Blue initiative, which aims to safeguard the oceans through designated areas called Hope Spots. Earle’s project, which has been receiving support from Rolex since 2014, has been able to increase the number of Hope Spots around the world from 50 to 112. In this way, marine species are being preserved, rare or endangered animals are being saved and local communities reliant on the oceans for survival are gaining more stable livelihoods.
For the past 43 years, the “laureates have unearthed historical sites, preserved vanishing countries and planted 18 million trees,” noted Dufour. With Rolex’s sustained support for preserving the natural world as it carries its founder’s vision forward, it will be helping to keep our planet perpetual.