Yerevan /Mediamax/. Armenian President Serzh Sargsian presented former Chairman of “Intel” Corporation’s Board of Directors Craig Barrett with an award of the Armenian President “for outstanding international contribution to the mankind by means of information technologies”.
Mediamax reports that Craig Barrett received a gold medal from the hands of the President. An eagle with a diamond eye is on the face side of the medal, and the Armenian State Emblem against the background of the Silicon Valley is on the opposite side.
Speaking at the awarding ceremony, chairman of the organizational committee of the Presidential Award, Vice-President of Synopsys Company Rich Goldman, who the idea of this award belongs to, stated that the Nobel Prize, which is the most prestigious one in the world and is awarded in various spheres, leaves out of its attention the sphere of IT, and Armenia is the only country in the world, where an award is being presented for outstanding contribution to the mankind by means of information technologies.
“Selecting Craig Barrett as the first winner of the Presidential award is correct, since this person was not only the Head of Intel, but he also made significant contribution to developing the world educational system in developing counties”, Rich Goldman stated.
Craig Barrett expressed gratitude for the award, stating that “being in Armenia and receiving the award, I represent numerous people, who have had a great influence on how we live, work and study over the past decades”.
“In the course of the nearest years, technologies will continue developing with speed, exceeding even ones, which we saw over the past 10-20 years, and this means that the world political and business leaders should not ignore technologies, since otherwise the societies of those countries will yield to the rest of the world”, Craig Barrett stated.
Armenian President Serzh Sargsian, in his turn, stated that this award is a modest contribution of the country in development of information technologies in the world. “We honor Dr. Barrett by this and highly appreciate the contribution of Intel company in spreading high technologies and knowledge in the entire world”, Serzh Sargsian stated.
According to him, the main task of establishing this award is to increase interest of the Armenian youth towards information technologies. “We will encourage their education and work in this sphere, we will seek and find the necessary ways and means for that”, President stated.
The decision on establishing the Presidential Award for international contribution to IT sphere was made in 2009. The award, established on the initiative of Synopsis Armenia, will be presented every year to a person, who makes unique contribution to international development of the sphere of information technologies. General sponsor of the award is VivaCell-MTS company.
