Meet two of the five Rolex Awards For Enterprise laureates, whose inspiring projects will improve life on Earth as part of the watchmaker's Perpetual Planet campaign.
Rolex, a firm supporter of explorers and individuals to discover more about planet Earth and to find ways to preserve the natural world, has launched the Perpetual Planet campaign this year to further its commitment to maintaining the well-being of our planet.
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One of the three key pillars of the campaign is the Rolex Awards for Enterprise, an award to foster entrepreneurship, advance human knowledge and protect our cultural heritage and the environment. (The other two are marine conservationist Sylvia Earle's Mission Blue initiative and Rolex's deepened partnership with the National Geographic Society.)
After a few rounds of presentations and selection by an independent jury, five Laureates were unveiled in a ceremony in Washington in June. Here, two of the Laureates—Indian conservation scientist Krithi Karanth and French scientist Grégoire Courtine—reveal more about their projects and their ambitions to solving Earth's key challenges.
Krithi Karanth, 40
As the chief conservation scientist at the Centre for Wildlife Studies in India, she wants to reduce the friction between wildlife and people living near Indian national parks. Every year, there are numerous cases which see animals and humans clashing, resulting in collateral damage, injury and death on both sides. Karanth’s team aims to mitigate the situation by reducing threats, raising conservation awareness and providing education to local communities, as well as assisting with compensation claims through Wild Seve, a toll-free helpline.