One of R&D Magazine’s top individual awards—The Innovator of the Year—is presented each year to a person or team who has demonstrated leadership, creativity, entrepreneurial spirit and success in the pursuit of science and technology.

Prior recipients of this Innovator of the Year Award—which has been presented for the past 15 years—have made significant advances in biotechnology, computer science, chemistry, and aerospace. 

As that time of year is once again upon us, R&D Magazine is looking back and profiling its past winners and prominent innovators of our time.

One of those recipients is a man who needs no introduction—Google co-founder Larry Page. R&D Magazine named the Internet entrepreneur and computer scientist its Innovator of the Year in 2002.

After enrolling in a computer science Ph.D. program at Stanford University, Page joined forces with his graduate school friend Sergey Brin for a research project and created a search engine that listed results according to popularity of the pages. The two called it “Google” after the mathematical term “googol,” which refers to the number 1 followed by 100 zeros, to reflect their mission to organize the sizable amount of information available on the web.

After raising $1 million from friends, family and other investors, the duo launched its company in 1998. Since then, it has become the most popular search engine to date, averaging 6 billion searches daily in 2013. Headquartered in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley, Google held its initial public offering in August 2004, making Page and Brin billionaires. In 2006, Google purchased the most popular website for user-submitted streaming videos–YouTube, for $1.65 billion in stock.
 

In September 2013, Page was ranked No. 13 on the “Forbes 400” list of the richest people in America. That October, he was ranked No. 17 on Forbes‘ 2013 “Most Powerful People” list. As Google’s CEO, the 43-year-old shared responsibility for the company’s day-to-day operations with Brin, who served as director of special projects for Google, and Eric Schmidt, the company’s executive chairman.

On August 10, 2015, Page and Brin announced the creation of a new parent company called “Alphabet” to oversee Google and other subsidiaries. Page and Brin were set to serve as the new company’s CEO and president, respectively, with Sundar Pichai stepping in as Google’s top executive.

Born in Michigan and raised by two computer expert parents, Page is married today to a research scientist, has two small children, and lives in Palo Alto, Calif. close to where Steve Jobs used to live.

To learn more about the R&D 100 Conference and Awards Dinner where the 2016 Innovator of the Year will be presented, click here.