Backed by Rolex through the Perpetual Planet Initiative, French Polynesian conservationist Titouan Bernicot has turned a teenage obsession with coral into one of the most closely watched reef restoration operations in the Pacific.
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At 90, and after more than 100 expeditions, marine biologist and oceanographer Sylvia Earle is still asking the same question. “What or who is down there?”
Fifty years after its launch, the Rolex Awards for Enterprise continue to fund projects still in progress, with the 2026 Laureates tackling challenges spanning biodiversity loss, disease prevention and ecosystem protection.
Heron Power, backed by Andreessen Horowitz and Breakthrough Energy, is scaling up production of solid-state transformers that move power to the grid more efficiently.
Steve Boyes and his team, backed by the Rolex Perpetual Planet Initiative, have travelled tens of thousands of kilometres by river chasing one simple question: where does a river begin? His latest focus is the Zambezi’s “source of life” wetlands in Angola.
From Trump frenemyship, the DOGE debacle, unmet self-driving car promises, chainsaws and “Mechahitler” to a $1 trillion pay deal, 2025 was the billionaire’s most chaotic and lucrative year.
Courtine has spent years building a system that reroutes movement around a broken spine. Now, inside a Swiss research hospital, he is applying it to patients with complete spinal fractures to see how much of walking can be rebuilt through direct neural stimulation.