The Gordon Bell Prize recognizes outstanding achievements in the application of parallel processing to practical scientific and engineering problems. In 1994, finalists were named for work in two categories: performance, which recognizes those who solved a real problem in less elapsed time than anyone else, and price/performance, which encourages the development of cost- effective supercomputing. For the first time in the competition, performance numbers in fractions of a teraflop were reported. Gordon Bell, a former National Science Foundation division director and now an independent consultant who sponsors the prize, was so pleased that he doubled the performance awards. This article describes the work of the finalists and explains the problems that were solved, obstacles that were overcome, and methods that were used. The prizes are intended to spur the transition of parallel processing from computer science research to useful applications.