"It is a singular honour for me to present the Festival Tribute Award, a Volta Award, to one of the true icons of world cinema, " he said.

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Applying an electric current and getting a muscle to jump is easy. (Alessandro Volta jolted a frog's legs 218 years ago.) Peckham is harvesting the body's own electrical signals to control muscles that have been cut off from the nervous system, a process called functional electrical stimulation, or FES. Peckham runs a group called the Cleveland FES Center, a collaboration among Case Western Reserve and two Cleveland hospitals.

FORBES: Technology

His first event was the Volta Show, a satellite Swiss production attached to the 2005 Art Basel show.

FORBES: Life