For the first time, a committee of the National Academy of Engineering and Ohio University are conducting a worldwide search for one individual to receive $500,000.

The money is part of a $5.8 million endowment from Ohio University benefactors Fritz and Dolores Russ, who also helped found OU's Russ College of Engineering.

The award will be given every two years, said Dwight Woodward, national media liaison for OU's university news services.

"The Russ prize is to engineering what the Pulitzer is to journalism and what the Nobel Prize is for medicine," said Kent Wray, dean of the college of engineering.

The prize is similar to the Charles Stark Draper Prize, which also is worth $500,000. The Draper and the Russ prizes are the only two engineers have of such a great statute, Wray said. The Russ prize consists of the money, a gold medallion and a certificate of recognition.

"The winner has to have made an advancement that has greatly impacted human society," said Daniel Whitt, Jr., National Academy of Engineering awards administrator.

The first award selected by the search committee members will be announced next year. After the recipient is chosen, the honoree will come to OU to lecture.

The intentions of this prize include raising the public image of engineers and enhancing the national recognition of OU and the College of Engineering, Wray said.

"Goals also include bringing attention to how engineering has improved life in the world and encouraging the medical and engineering professions to work closer together to solve problems such as disease and disability," he said.

The selection criteria will include achievements in an area of importance at the time the winner is being selected.

Whatever area is a "hot topic" at that time is the area in which the search committee will look for winners, Whitt said. The topic for the first award will be in biotechnology engineering.

Example fields in this area are genetic engineering, pharmaceutical processing and medical advances.

"The winner will be someone who has done something really incredible and made a really strong contribution to the engineering field," Woodward said.

Some students feel the award will work as a motivating factor for students pursuing an engineering career.

"I think it would affect how far students will go in the engineering field," OU sophomore Eric Corll said. "I think this will give students a little more incentive and drive."