After training to be a businessman, Otto works as a traveling salesperson in Cologne from 1853, and starts to delve into the world of internal combustion engine technology.
#nicolausaugustottoaward #naoa
Anniversary: This year, DEUTZ is presenting its prestigious Nicolaus August Otto Award for the fifth time. The engine manufacturer’s innovation prize is named for the inventor of the four-stroke engine and founder of the company that would later be-come DEUTZ AG.
As in the previous year, the 2023 award ceremony is taking place as part of the #neuland congress, a think tank for future-focused topics such as sustainable mobility.
THE AWARD
For more than 150 years, DEUTZ AG has stood for unsurpassed drive technology, which is why it is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of groundbreaking drive systems today. Founded by the pioneer and coinventor of the four-stroke principle, Nicolaus August Otto, the traditional Cologne-based company has succeeded in constantly reinventing itself and meeting the challenges posed by changing factors with innovative strength.
By awarding the Nicolaus August Otto Award, named after its founder, DEUTZ AG aims to herald a symbolic renaissance of innovation and pioneering spirit. This is why the Nicolaus August Otto Award is awarded for decisive shaping of the future, novel technology, groundbreaking futurology, and for an outstanding lifetime achievement. It is intended to honor visionaries of our time and, endowed with prize money of €30,000, to promote the prize winners’ new, big ideas.
NICOLAUS AUGUST OTTO
The award winner 2023
This year, DEUTZ AG is presenting its coveted innovation award to Professor Wan Gang. The professor, who has a PhD in engineering, formerly headed up the New Energy Automobile Engineering Center and later became Minister for Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China. He is being given the award in recognition of his research and other pioneering work.
Professor Wan Gang is held in high regard in academic, business, and political circles around the world for his pioneering work on electric vehicles and hydrogen technology. He studied experimental me-chanics at Tongji University in Shanghai and vehicle drive systems at Clausthal University of Technolo-gy in Germany, where he obtained his PhD. After a decade at Audi, during which he held senior roles in research and development, the professor returned to China in 2001. Back in his homeland, he was piv-otal in establishing the New Energy Automobile Engineering Center at Tongji University, and in doing so laid the foundations for his career in politics.
It all began with a vision: to make China a leader in electromobility. Professor Wan Gang brought this vision to reality thanks to his foresight and engineering prowess. Back in 2010, at the Expo in Shanghai, he showed that electric cars could be reliable and so made the world really start to believe in alternative drives. Professor Wan Gang is therefore very much following in the tradition of Nicolaus August Otto. To this day, the inventor of the four-stroke engine remains an inspiration for innovators around the world – and for research and development in the field of new and classic drive technologies.