ROCKAWAY, N.J. - R&D Magazine, a publication of the Science Group of Advantage Business Media, has announced the selection of Elon Musk as R&Dās 2007 Innovator of the Year. Musk is the CEO and CTO of Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), a company based in El Segundo, California, which he founded in 2002.
SpaceX develops high-reliability, low-cost commercial rockets and spacecraft for missions to Earth orbit and beyond. SpaceX won the NASA competition in 2006 to design, build, and demonstrate operation of a commercial replacement for the Space Shuttle, which is scheduled to be retired in 2010.
Musk also is the Chairman of Tesla Motors (a low-cost electric automobile company), Solar City (a solar cell company), and the Musk Foundation (a non-profit organization that focuses on science education, childrenās health, and clean energy).
Prior to SpaceX, Musk co-founded PayPal, the worldās leading Internet payment system and served as the companyās Chairman and CEO. He was the largest shareholder of PayPal when it was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002.
Musk also founded Zip2 Corp., a provider of Internet software to the media industry, with investments by the New York Times, Knight-Ridder, MDV, Softbank, and Hearst. He served as Chairman, CEO, and CTO prior to its sale in 1999 to Compaq.
Mr. Musk has a BS in physics from the University of Pennsylvania and a BS in Economics from the Wharton School of Business.
The Innovator of the Year will be the focus of the August 2007 cover story of R&D Magazine. Mr. Musk will receive his award at ceremonies in Chicagoās Navy Pier on October 18, 2007.
Previous recipients of R&Dās Innovator of the Year award have included Dean Kamen (developer of the Segway Human Transport system), Dr. Mark Humayun (Univ. of Southern California, developer of the first implantable artificial human retina), Burt Rutan (developer of SpaceShipOne, the first commercial manned spacecraft), Dr. Ian Foster (Univ. of Chicago, developer of software for distributed computing), Larry Page (co-founder of Google), and Dr. Stuart Parkin (IBM, developer of materials for high-density magnetic disk drives).
R&D Magazine is a business-to-business publication distributed to more than 80,000 scientists and engineers in industry, government, and academic research facilities. It has been published since 1959 and has received more than 25 editorial excellence awards since 2000, including the Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award.
