The Lifeboat Foundation has named Ray Kurzweil the winner of its 2005 Guardian Award.

The foundation, which is “dedicated to providing solutions that will safeguard humanity from the growing threat of terrorism and technological cataclysm,” annually bestows the award upon “a revered scientist or public figure who has heralded the coming of a future fraught with danger and encouraged provision against its perils.”

In making the award, the foundation cited Kurzweil’s advocacy of a “one hundred billion dollar program to accelerate the development of anti-biological virus technology” in response to an existential threat “in the form of the possibility of a bioengineered malevolent biological virus.”

“Advanced technologies thought to be available by about 2020 may enable one evil or simply clumsy person to destroy all life on earth,” the foundation says. “Our goal is to develop an ‘insurance policy’ in case of such a disaster. We believe that the entire world of nature, including human life, is deserving of such protection.”

The 2004 Guardian Award winner was U.K. Astronomer Royal Sir Martin Rees.