In fact, just as both Torvalds and Dr. Shinya Yamanaka were named laureates earlier this year, so too have they both been named joint Grand Winners of the 2012 Millennium Technology Prize.

With a prize set at 1.2 million euros, this year's award will be split between the two winners, with each receiving 600,000 euros. The President of the Republic of Finland, Sauli Niinistö, presented the prize today during a ceremony at the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki.

'The Benefit of Humanity'

“The Prize Committee decided, for the first time in the Millennium Technology Prize’s 10-year history, to award the Grand Prize to two innovators,” Ainomaija Haarla, president of Technology Academy Finland, which determines the award. “Dr. Shinya Yamanaka’s work in stem cell research and Linus Torvalds’s work in open source software have transformed their fields and will remain important for generations to come.”

Where Yamanaka’s discovery of a new method to develop pluripotent stem cells for medical research “could help combat intractable diseases,” Haarla added, “Linus Torvalds’s work has kept the web open for the pursuit of knowledge and for the benefit of humanity--not simply for financial interests.”