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Smokeball Announces 2026 Beacon Award Winners, Honoring Legal Professionals Making an Extraordinary Community Impact

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Annual award recognizes attorneys expanding access to justice, mentoring future leaders, and strengthening communities through service.

CHICAGO, July 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Smokeball, the industry-leading AI legal practice management software, today announced the recipients of its 2026 Beacon Awards, recognizing legal professionals whose dedication to serving others extends far beyond the courtroom. The annual awards celebrate attorneys who use their legal expertise to expand access to justice, empower underserved communities, and inspire meaningful change through service.

This year’s recipients were selected for their exceptional commitment to pro bono advocacy, legal education, mentorship, and community leadership—demonstrating the profound impact attorneys have in the lives of their clients, communities, and beyond.

Empathy in Action Award: Elleni Kalouris

Family law attorney Elleni Kalouris founded her practice with a mission to make legal representation accessible to those who need it most. While serving as in-house counsel, she continues to operate Kalouris Law Firm to provide free and reduced-fee legal services to underserved families, particularly survivors of domestic violence and immigrant communities.

In the past six months alone, Kalouris has donated approximately 100 hours of pro bono legal services while continuing to serve as a Guardian ad Litem for children, helping vulnerable families navigate some of life’s most difficult circumstances.

Catalyst Award: Luke Shealey

South Carolina attorney Luke Shealey, partner at The Shealey Law Firm, was recognized for multiplying his impact beyond his own clients. Through nonprofit organization Suzerain, he volunteers nationwide to train attorneys representing indigent clients in capital cases, sharing specialized jury selection strategies often unavailable in under-resourced jurisdictions.

Most recently, his three-day trial strategy training helped a Michigan defense team secure a life plea offer rather than a potential death sentence, illustrating the far-reaching impact of investing in fellow legal professionals.

People’s Choice Award: Krysle I. Myers

Krysle I. Myers, Founder and Managing Partner of Eleven Law Firm, was honored for her commitment to legal education and community empowerment. Through Stiletto Boss University, she has helped more than 4,000 girls and young women build skills in entrepreneurship, contracts, intellectual property, and financial literacy.

Beyond youth mentorship, Myers has trained nonprofit leaders across the country while contributing more than 1,150 hours of volunteer and reduced-fee legal services, representing an estimated $170,000 in donated legal expertise and educational programming.

Announcing at Smokeball Spark 2026

The Smokeball Beacon Awards recognize legal professionals who demonstrate that the practice of law extends beyond serving clients—it also means strengthening communities, improving access to justice, and inspiring others through leadership and service.

The 2026 Beacon Award recipients will be recognized during Spark 2026, Smokeball’s flagship conference taking place October 15 at the historic Chicago Athletic Association, where legal professionals from across the country will gather to celebrate innovation, leadership, and the future of the legal profession.

About Smokeball

Smokeball is your partner to drive your law firm into the future. As the industry’s leading cloud-based legal practice management software, Smokeball empowers you to run your firm specific to your area of law. The  platform gives legal professionals all the insights and tools needed to work smarter, not harder, through automatic time tracking, streamlined workflows, document automation, AI-powered tools, and actionable reporting. Learn more at smokeball.com.

Media contact: Nina Mendiola, Content Manager, nina.mendiola@smokeball.com

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SOURCE Smokeball, Inc.

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35.5%! LONGi Once Again Breaks World Record for Crystalline Silicon-Perovskite Tandem Solar Cell Efficiency

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SHANGHAI, July 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — At the 2026 Solar and Energy Storage Innovation Conference, LONGi officially announced that its independently developed crystalline silicon-perovskite tandem solar cell has achieved a conversion efficiency of 35.5%, certified by the European Solar Test Installation (ESTI), once again setting a new world record.

Crystalline silicon-perovskite tandem solar cells represent the mainstream technology route for next-generation ultra-high-efficiency solar cells, with a theoretical efficiency limit of up to 43% – far exceeding the Shockley–Queisser limit of 33.7% for single-junction cells. Through sustained technological breakthroughs, LONGi’s tandem cell team lifted the efficiency to 33.9% in November 2023 and further to 34.6% in June 2024. In less than a year since then, the team has achieved a series of successive advances, moving from 34.85% to 35.2%, and now to 35.5%, clearly demonstrating the R&D strength and spirit of exploration at LONGi’s Central Research Institute.

In May this year, LONGi’s independently developed two-terminal crystalline silicon-perovskite tandem cell efficiency (35.2%) was included in the 68th edition of the Solar Cell Efficiency Tables published by the team led by Professor Martin Green at the University of New South Wales, Australia, marking a representative high-level achievement for this technology route at the time. Meanwhile, under conditions closer to industrial-scale dimensions, LONGi achieved conversion efficiencies of 34.3% (261 cm²) and 32.2% (274 cm²), highlighting the promising industrialization prospects of tandem technology. Furthermore, LONGi’s tandem modules delivered conversion efficiencies of 31.4% and 29.4%, both independently certified by authoritative international institutions and included in the efficiency tables, further strengthening the foundation for moving crystalline silicon-perovskite tandem technology from the lab to industrial application.

Driven by its leading technological innovation capabilities, LONGi has established a tiered R&D system of “one generation in mass production, one in development, and one in reserve,” continuously advancing technological breakthroughs and high-quality development in clean energy. Looking ahead, LONGi will remain focused on technological leadership, delivering iterative breakthroughs to contribute the innovative strength of a Chinese enterprise to the global energy transition.

SOURCE LONGi Green Energy Technology Co., Ltd.

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Altimetrik Joins the World Economic Forum’s Centre for AI Excellence to Advance Responsible, Enterprise-Scale AI Innovation

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BENGALURU, India, July 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Altimetrik, an AI-native engineering company, has joined the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Centre for AI Excellence. Through this collaboration, Altimetrik will contribute its expertise in AI engineering, data, and platform foundations to help shape global standards for the responsible adoption and enterprise-scale deployment of artificial intelligence.

Central to Altimetrik’s contribution is ALTi AIOS™, its recently launched AI engineering operating system, purpose-built for the brownfield realities of large enterprises. The platform is backed by more than 10,000 engineering practitioners delivering AI in production across BFSI, manufacturing, retail, automotive, healthcare, and life sciences.

“Joining the World Economic Forum’s Centre for AI Excellence is a milestone for Altimetrik and an opportunity to help shape the global agenda on enterprise AI,” said Raj Sundaresan – CEO, Altimetrik. 

“AI is receiving unprecedented attention, but real transformation requires more than deploying tools. It requires organizations to be engineered to run AI responsibly, securely, and at scale.”

Most enterprises today are not greenfield. They are running decades of accumulated systems, data estates, and operational processes that AI must integrate with, not replace. ALTi AIOS™ abstracts that complexity, standardizes how humans and AI interact, and manages models, data, and governance through a unified operational layer. Through ALTi AIOS™, AI shifts from isolated pilots to enterprise-wide execution, with measurable business outcomes and built-in governance from the start.

“The enterprises that define the next decade will be the ones that engineer context, orchestration, governance, and trust into every layer of their agentic systems, not bolt it on after the fact,” said Niraj Nagrani – Chief Data and AI Officer, Altimetrik.

“The World Economic Forum’s Centre for AI Excellence is the right platform to advance that agenda, and we’re proud to bring ALTi AIOS™ and our production AI experience to that conversation.”

The WEF Centre for AI Excellence advances responsible AI through workstreams focused on accelerating impactful innovation, preparing industries and societies for the Intelligent Era, and promoting trustworthy technology through effective governance. Altimetrik joins a cohort of global organizations contributing engineering depth, sector expertise, and applied research to those workstreams.

Learn more about ALTi AIOS™.

About Altimetrik

We are Altimetrik, an AI-native engineering company helping some of the most revered and iconic enterprises modernize systems, data, and processes at the heart of their business, so they can move faster, operate more efficiently, and innovate continuously. Through ALTi AIOS™, our AI-native operating system, we combine the latest AI capabilities with deep engineering expertise to help clients solve complex challenges, accelerate modernization, and deliver measurable outcomes at scale.

Our clients get access to the latest AI innovations while maintaining the flexibility to choose the right technologies for their business, through trusted relationships with OpenAI, Google Gemini, Anthropic, Databricks and major hyperscalers.

A member of the World Economic Forum’s Centre for AI Excellence, the Forum’s global hub for shaping responsible AI, Altimetrik is also recognized in the 2025 Constellation Research ShortList™ for Global AI Services and named a Major Contender in multiple Everest Group PEAK Matrix® assessments, including Software Product Engineering Services (2026), Enterprise Quality Engineering Services (2025), and Digital Engineering Services for BFSI and Life Sciences. Learn more at altimetrik.com.

 

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GIMM Festival brings leading microbiology experts to Lisbon to discuss emerging viruses, antimicrobial resistance and biological engineering

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Charles M. Rice (2020 Nobel Prize in Medicine), Bonnie Bassler, Yasmine Belkaid and Isabel Gordo are among the confirmed speakers.

LISBON, Portugal, July 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Bacteria are continuously evolving and becoming increasingly resistant to life-saving medicines. Understanding how microorganisms adapt, communicate and influence human health is now a global scientific priority. This will be one of the central themes of the second edition of the GIMM Festival, taking place in Lisbon from 17 to 19 September.

Under the theme ‘Microbes – The Questions of the Future’, the festival will bring together internationally renowned researchers to explore the role of microorganisms in human health, biological evolution and ecosystem sustainability. The event aims to foster dialogue between science, society and biomedical innovation, at a time when challenges such as pandemics, antimicrobial resistance and environmental change are raising urgent new questions for research and policy.

The programme features some of the most influential names in contemporary microbiology:

Charles M. Rice (Rockefeller University), Nobel Prize winner in Medicine (2020), whose work led to the identification of the hepatitis C virus and enabled the development of effective antiviral treatments;Yasmine Belkaid, President of the Institut Pasteur, recognised for her pioneering research on the microbiome and immune system interactions;Bonnie Bassler (Princeton University), a leading expert in quorum sensing, the chemical communication process used by bacteria;Isabel Gordo (GIMM), ERC Advanced Grant recipient, who studies bacterial evolution within the human body and the mechanisms behind antibiotic resistance.

Over three days, researchers and the public will engage in discussions on major scientific challenges of the 21st century, including host–microbe interactions and disease, antimicrobial resistance and bacterial evolution, emerging viruses and preparedness for future pandemics, as well as microorganism engineering and synthetic biology.

Antimicrobial resistance is considered by the World Health Organization one of the greatest threats to global health, with the potential to cause millions of deaths in the coming decades if no effective action is taken. At the same time, advances in microbiome research and the growing capacity to engineer microorganisms are transforming fields such as medicine, biotechnology and environmental sustainability, opening new possibilities for prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

“The microscopic world has a profound impact on our health, ecosystems and the future of biotechnology. The GIMM Festival aims to bring researchers and society closer together to discuss how these discoveries can shape the future,” says Maria Manuel Mota, CEO of the Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine.

With the participation of world-leading scientists, including a Nobel laureate, the GIMM Festival positions Lisbon as an international hub for scientific debate, reinforcing its role as a meeting point for cutting-edge research and innovation in microbiology and global health.

The full programme and registration are available at www.gimmfest.pt.

About the Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine (GIMM)
The Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine (GIMM) is a biomedical research institute created through the merger of the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC) and the Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes (iMM). With a strong commitment to advancing knowledge, developing innovative solutions for health and translating discoveries into real-world impact, GIMM aims to establish itself as a global leader in life sciences and biomedical research.
www.gimm.pt 

About the GIMM Festival
The GIMM Festival is an annual event in Lisbon that celebrates science as a driver of social transformation. Organised by GIMM, it brings together national and international experts to discuss the major challenges of global health, promoting the connection between cutting-edge research, biomedical innovation and society.
www.gimmfest.pt

Press Contacts
Rita Resendes   
Communications & Media Relations Manager, Fundação GIMM 
rita.resendes@gimm.pt
+351 916 519 630

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