Top Saudi inventors receive accolades

Saudi woman scientist Dr. Iman bint Kamil Al-Daqs is one of the top Saudi inventors who won the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Prize for Inventors and Gifted, the board of trustees of the prize announced yesterday. The other winners of the newly instituted prize include Bassem Sheikh, Khalid Abu Alkhabar, Saleh bin Badawi, Hassan Al-Ruwaili, Majid Al-Hazmi and Mohsen Hussein, the Saudi Press Agency reported. Iman, Badawi and Ruwaili also won the prize for the gifted. President of the King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology Muhammad Al-Suwaiyel is the chairman of the board of trustees of the prize, which was instituted with an order to the Council of Ministers in 2010. Iman’s invention that brought her the prize is related to the combat of golden cluster bacteria. Abu Alkhabar invented a new method for producing proteins through nucleic acid while Al-Ruwaili invented an instrument to evaluate subterranean elements with greater precision. Al-Hazmi invented a thermal blocking system for hollow bricks used in the construction industry. The prize aims to develop science and technology in the Kingdom with encouragement to inventors and gifted men and women. “The prizes will be distributed annually at a function under the aegis of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah to the winners including the expatriates in the area of science and technology and creative ideas. Winners will also be honored with a King Abdul Aziz Sash and awarded cash prizes worth SR 1 million but with a higher limit of SR 100,000 for a winner,” Al-Suwaiyel said in a statement while inaugurating an Internet portal for the prize in February. Arab news