The two, Dr. Niklas Magnusson at SINTEF and Professor Magne Runde at SINTEF/NTNU, were awarded the prize of $35,000 at the Technoport Awards 2012 in Trondheim on Tuesday. They also received a work of art as part of the prize.

Their work was on an energy-saving superconducting aluminium billet induction heater, which helps lower climate-related emissions.

SINTEF is the largest independent research organization in Scandinavia, and NTNU is the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim.

The prize was created to stimulate students, researchers and Hydro employees to find new ways to improvement the environmental footprint of aluminium production – through more energy-efficient production of aluminium or new aluminium products with a significant effect on climate change issues.

The Hydro prize was established in cooperation with the Norwegian organization Technoport, which aims to "bring the voice of science in dialogue with businesspeople and decisions makers."

The jury for the "Hydro Green Aluminium Award" was headed by Hydro President and CEO Svein Richard Brandtzæg, and included Mark E. Schlesinger of the Missouri University of Science and Technology in the U.S., Jim Metson from the University of Auckland in New Zealand and Arne Bredesen from NTNU.

The prize ceremony Tuesday, the eighth year for Technoport, was part of the "Technoport 2012 Sharing Possibilities" conference in Trondheim. In all, seven prizes totaling more than $350,000 were awarded to researchers, companies and young talents with good ideas and solutions in smart technology and green economics.

• For more information about the award-winning contribution,
  see attachment in the right-hand column