A novel proposal by zoology graduate student John Burns has earned him a coveted spot as a finalist in the .
The award is given for a new or ongoing project anywhere in the world with a capacity to improve lives or protect the world’s natural and cultural heritage and is targeted to innovators under 30 years of age. Burns is one of 22 finalists chosen from a pool of over 1,800 applicants in 129 countries and is the only finalist from the United States.
His idea is to develop waterproof electronic tablets to promote community-based monitoring and conservation of coral reef ecosystems in Hawaiʻi, where the coastal populations depend on marine resources.
Unlike some monitoring tools that are expensive and difficult to customize, Burns’ tablet includes software that easily aggregates user-collected information, including photos, and saves it to a secure online database. The same tools can then perform automated data summaries, trend mapping and graphical display of the data.
The winners of the Rolex Awards for Enterprise will be announced in June 2014. Five Young Laureates of the Rolex Awards will receive a monetary award of more than $56,000 to support their projects.
- , the research publication of 东精影业 Mānoa.
More about John Burns
A resident of Pāpaʻikou on Hawaiʻi Island, Burns earned his master’s degree in at and is currently a PhD candidate in the zoology program, , College of Natural Sciences at 东精影业 Mānoa. He works in the at the , part of the .
Burns has been featured in 东精影业 News a few times, for his work on coral reef monitoring.
- January, 16, 2012
- November 9, 2012
- August 31, 2012