The everyday miracles of technology continue to play an expanding role in the weightier concerns of a changing world. But so, too, do the courage, the innovation, the daring, and the energy of the human spirit behind these projects. There is great poignancy and deep meaning to "The Search for New Heroes," the theme of the Computerworld Honors Program.

Just reading the brief description of some of our Finalists’ accomplishments can make your throat close with emotion. Network for Good, for instance, brings content and resources together for hundreds of thousands of charitable organizations every day, allowing donors and volunteers to more quickly and easily find the charity they believe most needs their help, and greatly increasing the reach and resources of those same charities.

On the other side of the world, the China Education Research Network, or CERNET, is the world’s largest country’s first national internet backbone and is quickly becoming the planet’s largest nationwide academic network. The Earth Simulator Center, using a supercomputer capable of sustaining five times the compute rates of the previous record holder, has opened the door to predicting, with ever greater accuracy, natural phenomena such as typhoons and El Niño.

Pushing the medical frontier, Lexicon Genetics is using new gene knockout technology to define the functions and pharmaceutical utility of individual genes, opening doors on new and individualized methods of therapies and treatments.

Throughout every diverse field of endeavor – from business, manufacturing, and medicine to academia, government, the environment, and finance – the Computerworld Honors Search for New Heroes is a rewarding one indeed. We give our heartfelt thanks to all the nominees and their sponsors for sharing their work, enriching all our lives and contributing to the record of this revolution in progress.