The prestigious Technology Review of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has named a scientist in Switzerland as one of the young innovators of the year.

Jochen Mundinger, working at the Swiss Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), was recognised for developing a search engine that finds the fastest, cheapest, or most ecological way to get from A to B.

Mundinger’s website, routeRANK.com, not only finds flights between cities, but also trains, public transport and driving routes and allows the potential traveller to combine them.

The calculations include costs and journey times, as well as the carbon dioxide emissions associated with each trip. The site includes a link to a carbon-offset company based in Switzerland, myclimate.

The Technology Review said the system currently only works for Europe but Mundinger has plans to include other continents.

The 35 under-35 innovators lauded for their work by the magazine includes scientists involved in a range of disciplines including medicine, computing and nanotechnology.

They have developed among other things flexible robotic hands, a system to reprogramme cells to cure diseases and a system to help shape rules for social networks.

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