It’s been said that the best way to stifle creativity by researchers is to demand that they produce immediately marketable technologies and products. This is also effectively the story of Bell Labs, ...

Over the last century, Nokia’s award-winning industrial research arm whose inventions of the transistor, solar cell and laser laid the groundwork for the digital age and paved a path to the internet.

Bell Labs is already highly recognized, but in its centennial year, the organization hoped to add more awards to burnish its reputation as one of the world’s leading centers of technical innovation.