FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SEPTEMBER 21, 2002

Media Contact: Victoria Downing
214-768-3355

KILBY AWARDS FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES OCTOBER 2nd VIDEO-BROADCAST BENEFITING AREA STUDENTS

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DALLAS - The Kilby Awards Foundation announced plans for a Dallas site for a pilot program to produce live interactive video-broadcasts which engage underserved high school students throughout the world with extraordinary role models from the worlds of science, technology, innovation, invention, and education. The Foundation will initiate the 1st in a series of live and interactive broadcasts, "International Champions of Creativity," on October 2, 2002 at the Wyndham Anatole Hotel, Dallas, Texas.

This broadcast features Kilby Laureates and one International Council member as role models for high school students from the Dallas Independent School District and districts within Region 10. In addition, high school students in Los Angeles from the University of Southern California's Mesa Program, will participate via video link. Dr. Jerome Walker, Associate Provost, University of Southern California, will co-host the California video participants at USC's Mesa school site.

"Five world-class role models from the worlds of science, technology, and education will share their secrets of motivation and inspiration live (2 in person and 3 by video-link) with over a thousand area students, and several hundred more in Texas and California connected by video link." said Victoria Smith Downing, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Kilby International Awards Foundation, Host.

The Broadcast Program will begin at 11am. On site guests include Kilby Laureate Dr. Marc Hannah, co-founder of Silicon Graphics and Kilby International Council member, Dr. Jaleh Daie, Scholar, Educator who served in the past on the President's Science Advisory Council. They will be joined via video link by Kilby Laureates: Dr. Mark Reed from Yale University, Dr. Margaret Lowman from Florida's Selby Botanical Gardens, and Dr. Susan Athey from Stanford University.

Students will be treated to a brief introductory message from each of these distinguished speakers, after which students will question the speakers. Following the program, the speakers and other Role Models from the Patrons Circle will join the attending students for lunch in the auditorium and informal discussions will continue. A bonus of the program is curriculum developed by the partners of the Kilby Educational Network, including Dallas Independent School District, Region X, and the MESA schools associated with USC in California. Students will get acquainted with the speakers prior to the event through an educational curriculum program facilitated by Blackboard, a company created by two Kilby Young Innovators of 2000.

"We are deeply grateful for the generous support of our early Patrons including Hewlett Packard Compaq, Microtune, Gamma Wealth Strategy and Research LLC, Jones Day, Gardere & Wynne, Connexus, DISD, Texas Instruments, Southern Methodist University, and our brilliant Virtual Broadcast team from across the U.S. Our technical team will be linking Dallas' Stemmons Auditorium with Stanford, Yale, USC and other remote points using technology to cross the digital and geographic divides. This is the team we assembled for our first program with Disney Imagineering in Hollywood last year. Now we are delighted to bring this innovative education program to Dallas and the region," said Downing.

The "International Champions of Creativity" program is an outgrowth of the Kilby International Awards, created in 1990 to honor Jack St. Clair Kilby, inventor of the "Chip." The Awards have recognized 50 individuals across the world for their contributions to society through science, technology, innovation, invention and education. Jack St. Clair Kilby will be a special guest. Since 1997, the Kilby International Awards have been named one of the top 116 awards in the world by the International Congress of Distinguished Awards.

Participating Kilby Laureates and International Council Members include:

Dr. Susan Athey - Kilby Laureate A brilliant young economist who was featured in the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, and the Boston Globe as the top economics draft choice among US Universities upon receipt of her Ph.D. at Stanford. As an undergraduate at Duke University, she received many accolades while majoring simultaneously in economics, mathematics, and computer science. Professor Athey, who formerly held joint appointments at both Yale and MIT, now conducts research and teaches at Stanford. She is an advisor to governments and edits major journals in her field.
Dr. Marc Hannah - Kilby Laureate Dr. Hannah is the visionary who co-founded Silicon Graphics. He designed the Geometry Engine Chip which thrust SGI into leadership in 3D special effects for films such as Jurassic Park and Terminator 2, ultimately enabling SGI to become the world's first billion dollar graphics company. Hannah went on to become an active investor in other entrepreneurial endeavors and currently serves as Chief Technology Officer of SongPro. He holds degrees from Illinois Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. from Stanford.
Dr. Margaret Lowman - Kilby Laureate Dr. Margaret Lowman is a world renowned Rainforest Canopy Botanist whose daring methodologies include being dropped from helicopters hovering above the treetops of the Rainforest in order to conduct research vital to the health of the planet. Currently, she is the Executive Director of the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Florida. Her critical research, focusing on the existence and impact of insect life in rainforests has propelled her through a twenty year odyssey of scientific adventure across the world, including Australia, Peru, Africa, the Americas, and South Pacific.
Dr. Mark Reed - Kilby Laureate Dr. Reed is a leading young Champion of the science of the future, Nanotechnology. A Yale Professor who was recently elected to the prestigious Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering, Reed holds dual appointments in Applied Science and Engineering as the Harold Hogkinson Chair. Earlier named by Fortune magazine as one of the country's " Most Promising Young Scientists," he has recently received several illustrious awards, including the Fujitsu ISCS Quantum Device Award and the Yale Science and Engineering Association award for Advancement of Basic and Applied Science.
Dr. Jaleh Daie - Kilby International Council Member Dr. Daie, once Science Liaison to the President's National Science and Technology Council, is currently Managing Partner, Aurora Equity LLC. Formerly a Professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison, she has served as Treasurer at the US Space Foundation and President of the Association for Women in Science. She is the immediate past Director of Science at the Packard Foundation and was recently inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame.
Victoria Smith Downing - Host, Chairman, Kilby Awards Foundation Victoria Smith Downing, Founder, Int'l Venture & Equity Capital and IVEC Technologies, S.A., a Swiss Company, was trained as a concert pianist, combined motherhood with civic and philanthropic interests throughout an international business career that has spanned three continents: the US, Europe, and Africa. She wrote the first studies on Micro-Enterprise as a method to enhance the lives of the poor in the third world for the World Bank and the US Agency for International Development. In 2002, she received the Maura International Award.

The Kilby Awards, the Dallas-based 501(c)(3) Foundation is named by the founders to honor Jack St. Clair Kilby, inventor of the "Chip." The Foundation is solely funded through the generous contributions of the founding committees, private philanthropists, corporations, and private institutions.

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View photographs of the event.