Contact: Becki Chall Tel: 810-287-3940 Email: becki@publiclab.org www.publiclab.org

For Immediate Release

Public Lab is a Finalist for the 2013 Buckminster Fuller Challenge

New Orleans, LA, 10/17/2013 – The Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science has been selected as a finalist in the 2013 Buckminster Fuller Challenge, the prestigious annual design science competition named "Socially-Responsible Design's Highest Award" by Metropolis Magazine. The Challenge awards $100,000 to support the development and implementation of a whole systems-based solution that has significant potential to solve humanity’s most pressing problems.

As we face global demand increases for energy and consumer products, and their resultant disproportionate health and environmental impacts on low-income communities, Public Lab empowers residents to challenge government and industry environmental health data through collaborative development of inexpensive, open source monitoring tools and techniques. To date, their community of over 4,000 global contributors has developed low-cost, easy to use tools for aerial photography and mapping, DIY spectrometry, and infrared photography, with several other tools in development.

"Public Lab is honored to be a finalist in the 2013 Buckminster Fuller Challenge,” said Public Lab President and co-founder Shannon Dosemagen. ”Being part of such an amazing group of projects, and having the impact of our work recognized by a visionary institution like BFI, provides validation to what we have accomplished so far and inspires us to work even harder to build a global network of citizen scientists and environmental justice advocates."

After a rigorous vetting process by the Buckminster Fuller Institute’s multi-disciplinary review team, which included an in-depth interview, followed by a review by a distinguished jury, Public Lab was chosen from a pool of 300 entries from around the world, to be one of only five finalists this year.

The prize will be awarded to the winning entry in an evening ceremony at Cooper Union on November 18th, 2013. In addition to the top prize winner, Challenge sponsor, Interface Inc. will be awarding one of the finalists with significant incubation support. Stay tuned for program details—in the meantime, save the date and RSVP here.

The Buckminster Fuller Challenge is the premier global competition recognizing initiatives that take a comprehensive, anticipatory, design approach to radically advance human well being and the health of our planet’s ecosystems. The 2012 Finalists are providing visionary, workable solutions to some of the world’s most significant challenges. The Challenge is a program of The Buckminster Fuller Institute which aims to deeply influence the ascendance of a new generation of design-science pioneers who are leading the creation of an abundant and restorative world economy that benefits all humanity.