Russia awards US$1 million prize for energy-related work to a Russian and German

Russia has awarded US$1 million Global Energy Prize to a Russian and a German scientist, the Itar-Tass news agency reported Thursday

The prize was awarded to Russian Zhores Alferov, the 2000 Nobel Prize laureate in physics, and to German Klaus Riedle, the agency said.

The report did not specify what the men had done to win the prize.

The prize criteria are tied loosely to energy-related development, with preference given to work that promotes ecologically clean energy production, boosts energy-conservation mechanisms or makes a breakthrough in research into renewable energy.

Past recipients of the prize include Ian Douglas Smith of the California-based Titan Corp.'s Pulse Sciences Division and Gennady Mesyats of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Associated Press

On the photo: Zhores Alferov