VANCOUVER, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- Mike Lazaridis, founder of Research In Motion, the Canadian company that developed the Blackberry, says more risk taking and investment in scientific research is needed to develop new ideas for future breakthroughs.

Speaking Friday in Vancouver at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting, the 50-year-old Lazaridis, who with partner Jim Balsillie unveiled the Blackberry handheld wireless device in 1999, urged greater support for scientists, researchers and students. 

The Ontario native, who Forbes magazine estimated had a net worth of 800 million Canadian dollars (802.5 million U.S. dollars) last year, said creative minds needed to be funded imaginatively. 

It has to be understood, he said, that what researchers are doing now will be vitally important in 20 to 50 years and "we haven't got a chance of understanding its relevance today." 

He mentioned the 1947 invention of the transistor, for instance, that was discovered while trying to figure out how quantum mechanics worked in solids. Its inventors, William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain, initially had no idea that their discovery would go on to become the basis for modern electronics. 

"At this conference we will have the chance to hear about some of the biggest ideas in science," Lazarridis said. "Some will dazzle us with their possibilities and some, I dearly hope, will seem to have no application at all. And those are the ideas I think you should be really excited about." 

At the five-day convention considered the largest gathering of the scientific world with 8,000 researchers, journalists, policymakers and science communicators in attendance, the theme of the 164-year-old event is globalization and science. 

Lazaridis, who used part of his vast fortune to establish the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, among his many philanthropic acts, told the audience how he was always thrilled to go into the facility's cafeteria and hear so many different accents. 

He said that what unites all scientists and researchers is a common language - mathematics, adding science transcends across gender, race, age, cultures and geography to solve problems. 

The Istanbul-born entrepreneur stressed the importance of teachers, and ultimately education, which he compared to a form of time travel. 

"We are sending our children forward in time to a future that doesn't exist yet," Lazaridis said. "They'll hold jobs that we've never heard of in industries that have yet to be invented. What can they take with them?"

(Source: Xinhua)