Science and technology take center stage this election year

Wallace Broecker receives the 2008 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Earth and Environmental Science for developing models of how the ocean circulates, how the ocean affects climate change and how the climate has changed throughout history.

The first theories that humans could affect the earth's climate appeared over 100 years ago, but it was Wallace Broecker who truly brought climate change into the scientific arena. The 2008 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Earth and Environmental Science is awarded to Wallace Broecker for his seminal work studying how the ocean influences the climate, developing models of ocean circulation and helping initiate the field of global environmental science.

Bower Award Winners:

Frederick Smith

Frederick Smith receives the 2008 Bower Award for Business Leadership for conceiving of and establishing the first system of global delivery that guarantees package arrival at a certain time -- initiating the previously unheard of concept of overnight delivery. In addition, he receives the award for leading a company that is consistently heralded as an exemplary corporate citizen.

As ubiquitous as FedEx is today, delivering packages to some 220 countries at amazingly quick speeds, it's hard to remember that the idea of overnight delivery was unthinkable when Fred Smith first conceived of it. Using foresight of the digital revolution and the teamwork skills he learned in the marines, Smith took a fantastical concept and turned it into a more than 30 billion dollar company, for which the Franklin Institute awards him the 2008 Bower Award for Business Leadership.

Takeo Kanade

Takeo Kanade is awarded the 2008 Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science in honor of a lifetime of ground-breaking contributions to robotics, including extensive work in image processing that has contributed to numerous real-world applications including robotic vision, fully-realized 3-D virtual worlds from 2-D images and medical technology.

From his early work in face recognition to his 3-D imaging techniques used during the Superbowl broadcast in 2001 to a new computer-assisted surgical system for hip replacement, Takeo Kanade has proven himself as a leader in the field of robotics -- for which he is presented with the 2008 Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science.

View NBC’s Lester Holt, hosting 2007 Franklin Institute Awards. http://www2.fi.edu/press/epk/awards/laureates.php