The two, Dr Niklas Magnusson at SINTEF and Professor Magne Runde at SINTEF/NTNU, were awarded the prize of $35,000 at the Technoport Awards 2012 in Trondheim on Tuesday. They also received a work of art as part of the prize.

Their work was on an energy-saving superconducting aluminium billet induction heater, which helps lower climate-related emissions.

SINTEF is the largest independent research organization in Scandinavia, and NTNU is the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim.

The prize was created to stimulate students, researchers and Hydro employees to find new ways to improve the environmental footprint of aluminium production – through more energy-efficient production of aluminium or new aluminium products with a significant effect on climate change issues.