Telenor's Nordic research prize of NOK 250,000 has been awarded to Dr. Haakon Bryhni of Birdstep Technology ASA. He is awarded the prize for his research within the Mobile IP standard and for his contribution to the development of seamless communication across different technologies. Kristin Clemet, the Minister for Education and Research, introduced the winner at a research seminar at Fornebu on Thursday.

The Jury's grounds for selection:

In agreement with the jury, Telenor selects for each year a theme for the award, within one of three main areas:
- technology
- regulatory and user aspects
- services

The theme for this year's award is "Technologies and Systems enabling new Communication Services".

Anyone may nominate candidates for the prize. Invitations are made public on the Internet and is sent to companies, universities, research institutes and other organisations in all the Nordic countries. Since the prize was first awarded in 1997 there have been winners from Sweden, Denmark and Norway. This year - as before - the jury had to make their selection among very competent candidates. Still- as before - the jury has reached a unanimous decision on this year's winner.

The members of the jury are:
Peter T. Kirstein, Professor, University College London
Erik Bohlin, Ekonomie Dr., Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg
Mads Christoffersen, Professor, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow
Gunnar Stette, Professor, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim
Olli Martikainen, Professor, University of Oulo
The jury is headed by Berit Svendsen, Executive Vice President for Technology (CTO) Telenor

The winner of Telenor's Nordic research award 2003 is Vice President for Technology (CTO) of Birdstep Technology ASA, Dr. Haakon Bryhni, Oslo.

The jury's grounds for selecting this year's winner are:
"The candidate works on Internet and mobility, which fits in very well with this year's theme. More specifically he has been working on seamless communication over networks of varying types, based on the Mobile IP standard as well as on secure access for mobile users in public radio-based local networks, so-called IP zones, utilising WLAN (Wireless Local Area Networks).

His work comprises aspects like broadband, nomadic services, security and quality, and enables a host of new applications. Examples are:
- The user may have nomadic and wireless access to business services in the same way as through fixed broadband networks, at work and elsewhere
- The user may have access to the same user experience of services, regardless of type of radio-based network, such as Bluetooth, WLAN, GSM or UMTS
- The user's connection with his company's existing VPN solution may be automatically secured when communication is carried through public (wireless) networks
- The user may have a service quality adjusted to the needs and capacities of the relevant networks that the user is connected to in various situations

The candidate has proved himself as a pioneer in seeing the possibilities of Mobile IP and the new radio technologies - at a time when the ruling paradigm for broadband mobile services was UMTS and large parts of the telecom business were preparing for the catastrophic auctions that were to follow. He has been extremely active in academia as well as in business. At this intersection he has shown great ability for combining basic theory with a practical and commercial realisation of his ideas. After completing his doctorate he started his career by starting his own firm and is now technical director of a highly profiled IT company. The winner is also very active as a lecturer and speaker and has excellently contributed to informing and starting a dialogue on the new concepts he has been working with.

It is the jury's opinion that Dr. Haakon Bryhni was early in guiding the way into an area which today is in rapid progress and which will probably pave the way for services that we will take for granted as easily as we do e-mail and mobile telephony today."

Press release