Inventor wins Lemelson-MIT sustainability award

Martin Fisher has won the $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Sustainability for developing cheap, human-powered irrigation pumps, the Lemelson-MIT Program in Cambridge said today.

The pumps were designed by Fisher and his nonprofit enterprise KickStart to help rural farmers in regions like sub-Saharan Africa.

(At right, Fisher demonstrates one of the pumps.)

Fisher's Super MoneyMaker Pump can pull water from a source as much as 30 feet below where the pump operator is standing, and it can then pressurize the water and spray it to a height of more than 40 feet, the Lemelson-MIT Program noted.

"By learning and understanding African societal needs and cultures first hand, Fisher has harnessed the entrepreneurial drive of many Africans and empowered them with sustainable technological inventions," Joshua Schuler, executive director of the Lemelson-MIT Program, said in a statement.

The Lemelson-MIT Program, which was founded at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by inventor Jerome H. Lemelson and his wife, Dorothy, in 1994, recognizes outstanding investors and seeks to encourage sustainable solutions to real-world problems.
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)