Peter de Jager has been named the Lifeboat Foundation 2009 Guardian Award Winner, annually bestowed upon a respected scientist or public figure who has warned of a future fraught with dangers and encouraged measures to prevent them.

This award is in recognition of his 1993 warning that alerted the world to the potential Y2K disaster that might have occurred on January 1, 2000 and his efforts in the following years to create global awareness of the problem, and the possible solutions.

His presentations, articles, and more than 2,000 media interviews contributed significantly to the world’s mobilization to avoid that fate, according to a Lifeboat Foundation statement.