Ashok Gadgil has spent the past three decades helping people in need—and he has no plans to stop .On May 2, Gadgil won the$100. 000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Global Innovation. Each year, the honor is given to an inventor who has improved the lives of people in developing countries. Gadgil's inventions have helped more than 100 million people around the world.
Gadgil is a professor and physicist at the University of California. When he's not teaching, he works to find solutions to global problems such as energy efficiency and water safety. "I chose to focus on problems where my knowledge of science could help, "he said.
In the 1980s he came up with a program to make energy-efficient light bulbs more affordable for people in developing countries. Then in the 1990s, Gadgil designed his first life—saving invention, UV Waterworks .The device kills deadly disease —carrying germs(病菌)from drinking water. It costs just one cent to clean five liters of water .Gadgil was inspired to find an inexpensive solution to the clean water crisis after more than 10, 000 people in his home country of India died from an outbreak of Bengal cholera, in 1993 The disease is spread throughcontaminatedfood and drinking water .So far, the invention has provided safe drinking water to more than five million people in poor areas.
As a professor, Gadgil encourages his students to stay positive about finding solutions to hard problems." Be optimistic when you try a hard problem." he says. "It's when you solve a large problem that you can have a big impact on the world"
