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GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Cade Prize for Inventivity, an annual competition for early-stage inventors and entrepreneurs, today announced the recognition of Anthony “Tony” James Barr as this year’s recipient of the Cade Inventor Laureate award. The award honors living inventors whose innovations transformed the competitive landscape in their fields, broadly changed economies and societies, succeeded commercially and proved economically sustainable.
Barr created the original Statistical Analysis System (SAS) that gave researchers, analysts and institutions a way to manage data, run advanced statistics and generate meaningful analysis, all within one elegantly designed computational system. SAS automated manual calculation systems and led to advancements in agriculture, medicine, communications, business, national defense and more.
“SAS is one of the most widely used systems of analysis in the world, and its technological impact is simply unparalleled. Its uses are critical for everything from big data management to mass analytics and AI,” said Richard Miles, a Cade Museum co-founder and Cade Prize judge. “We are honored to present this award to our dear friend Tony and celebrate not just an extraordinary invention, but an extraordinary life, one that has been a blessing to others.”
The award will be presented to Barr at the 2026 Cade Prize Awards on Wednesday, Oct. 14 from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention. Tickets are on sale at cadeprize.org.
This year’s prize is sponsored by Scott MacKenzie; The Community Foundation of North Central Florida; Florida High Tech Corridor; Gatorade; Lee & Associates, Cyle Sage; OneSixOne Ventures; Saliwanchik, Lloyd & Eisenschenk; 3D Musketeers; NVision Strategies; and Hyatt Place Downtown.
About the Cade Prize
The Cade Prize for Inventivity — named after Dr. Robert Cade, lead inventor behind Gatorade — celebrates inventors and entrepreneurs who, through an innovative invention, demonstrate a creative approach to addressing problems in their field of expertise. Learn more at cadeprize.org.
Media Contact
Julie DeCarmine, jdecarmine@cademuseum.org
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