ST. PETERSBURG, June 5 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev handed Global Energy international prizes on Friday to scientists involved in hydrocarbon and uranium exploration, and energy calculations.

Nikolai Laverov and Alexei Kantorovich, members of the Russian Academy of Sciences, received prizes during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum "for fundamental research, methods and technologies applied in the exploration and development of oil, gas and uranium deposits; establishing a scientific foundation for claiming large areas of energy feedstock," the Global Energy website said.

Professor Brian Spalding of the U.K. received a prize "for original concepts in fundamental thermodynamics, fluid mechanics and computational hydrodynamics, which formed the basis for practical calculations concerning energy."

Twenty scientists from eight countries have won prize since 2003.

Medvedev said Russia will continue investing funds in science projects dealing with energy efficiency.

"Without exaggeration, our planet's energy future is in the hands of scientists. Russia will in the future continue to support such research, invest money into such work, and assist various scientific schools. The Global Energy prize serves this goal," he said.

The Global Energy International Prize is designed to contribute to international cooperation in resolving the most urgent modern problems in the power generation sphere.