The National Academy of Engineering of the National Academies will award the engineering profession's highest honors for 2007 at a gala dinner in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 20. Three $500,000 prizes will be presented: The Draper Prize, established to recognize achievements in increasing public understanding of engineering and technology; the Russ Prize, which honors outstanding achievement in engineering; and the Gordon Prize, which recognizes experiments in education that develop effective engineering leaders.

The $1 million Grainger Challenge Prize for Sustainability will also be presented. The contest sought innovative solutions for removing arsenic from drinking water that is slowly poisoning tens of millions of people in developing countries. The second and third place winners will also receive awards.

DETAILS: The formal prize presentation event will take place Tuesday, Feb. 20, at 6:30 p.m. in the East Hall of Union Station, 50 Massachusetts Ave., N.E., Washington, D.C. The prize winners will meet with middle school students who are finalists in the nationwide Future City Competition (http://www.futurecity.org/) that afternoon, from 1 p.m to 2:30, in the Congressional Room A at the Hyatt Regency, 400 New Jersey Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C.