We are honored to invite ISES award winners to join us in Abu Dhabi and share with us their innovative work and perspectives on solar and renewable energy. We welcome all participants to attend their speeches (Farrington Daniels award, Karl W. Böer award and Renewable Transformation Challenge award) and to network with award winners during the conference gala dinner on Wednesday evening.
Elsevier / ISES Renewable Transformation Challenge
Recipient: Daniel Ciganovic on behalf of Dr. Sebastian Groh
A creative mind and stubborn by birth. A dreamer who never accepts and questions everything. Daniel has a background in Monetary Economics and Social Psychology and almost ten years of experience in business development and international development projects.
Daniel holds a Master degree in Economics from the University of Trier and has gained working experience in Germany, Serbia, and Bangladesh. For his Master thesis about “Hedging Investments in Microfinance Products against Currency Risks - Analytical Consideration of a Monetary Fund” was awarded with the 2nd place at the University Meets Microfinance Master Thesis Award 2013. During his university studies, he was an independent business advisor on business development for IT start-ups.
As Co-Founder and Business Development Director of the Bangladeshi company ME SOLshare Ltd (SOLshare), Daniel is leading the business and company development activities. He joined the company in January 2015, only three months after the incorporation, and lives in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Since joining SOLshare, Daniel has played a major role in the fast development of the company, which was awarded with the Intersolar Award in June 2016, the UN Momentum for Change Award in November 2016, and the Start Up Energy Transition Award from the German Energy Agency in March, 2017. Before joining SOLshare, Daniel worked as a consultant for MicroEnergy International in Germany as well as the KfW Development Bank and GIZ in Serbia, where he was involved in energy and private sector development projects.
ISES Karl W. Böer Solar Energy Award
Recipient: Prof. Yogi Goswami
Renowned researcher, entrepreneur and solar energy expert D. Yogi Goswami of the University of South Florida has been named the 2016 winner of the Karl W. Böer Solar Energy Medal of Merit.
Goswami's work focuses on reducing costs and developing efficient, effective storage methods for solar energy as well as harnessing solar energy as a catalyst to address environmental problems. Read the full article on the University of Delaware website.
ISES Farrington Daniels award
Recipient: Prof. Robert Pitz-Paal is the recipient of this years Farrington Daniels award and will give a special Lecture on Tuesday 31 October at 16:00 in the ballroom.
Prof. Robert Pitz-Paal is the Director of the Solar Research Institute at the DLR-German Aerospace Center. He further holds the Chair for Solar Technology in the Department of Mechanical Engineering of RWTH Aachen University in Germany. The DLR's Solar Research Institute, which he co-founded, is the largest institution in Germany in the field of concentrating solar technologies, comprising a staff of more than 150 scientists and engineers with state-of-the-art laboratories in Cologne, Stuttgart, Jülich, and Almería.
He received his PhD degree from Ruhr University of Bochum in 1993. His main research areas are the technical analysis and optimization of concentrating solar power systems for generating electricity and fuels. His scientific publications won awards from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and a variety of his research results were transferred to industry and led to the creation of spin-off companies. In 2008 he was a visiting Professor at ETH Zurich and from 2009 to 2010 he was Deputy Director of the DLR’s Institute of Technical Thermodynamics. As an internationally recognized expert on concentrated solar technologies, he serves as associate editor of ISES’s Solar Energy Journal and as vice-chairman of the International Energy Agency’s SolarPACES-Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems implementing agreement. He is member of the board of the German Industry Association of Concentrated Solar Power.
ISES Achievement through Action Award in memory of Christopher A. Weeks
The award is given to an individual, a group, or a corporate body that has made an important contribution to the harnessing of solar energy for practical use or is proposing a new concept, development or product for the same purpose. This award is not limited to members of ISES. This award was created in 1983 and consists of a certificate and a cash prize derived from funds donated by Mrs. Marta Weeks.
Recipient: Professor Aldo Steinfeld of the ETH Zurich in Switzerland
Professor Aldo Steinfeld holds the Chair of Renewable Energy Carriers in the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering at ETH Zurich. His research program is aimed at the advancement of the thermal and chemical engineering sciences applied to renewable energy technologies. His research focus comprises heat and mass transfer phenomena and multi-phase reacting flows, with applications in solar power, fuels, and materials production, CO2 capture and utilization, energy storage and sustainable energy systems. He is one of the leading scholars in the field of solar energy, in particular for his outstanding contributions to the fundamentals of high-temperature/high-flux solar energy conversion. His group has pioneered the development of solar-driven thermochemical reactor technologies for producing clean transportation fuels from water and CO2.
Prof. Steinfeld has authored more than 320 refereed journal papers and supervised 42 PhD theses to date. The impact of his work is attested by over 17,000 citations. His contributions to science and education have been recognized with several prestigious international awards, the more recent one being the 2016 ASME Kreith Energy Award for his work leading to a secure and sustainable energy future. He is member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences and of the International Solar Energy Society’s Board of Directors.
Solar Energy journal "Best Paper" award
Best Paper in the topic of Concentrated Solar Power
“The morphological stability and fuel production of commercial fibrous ceria particles for solar thermochemical redox cycling” Adam C. Gladen, Jane H. Davidson, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN United States
Best Paper in the topic of Photovoltaics
“Progress in research on the stability of organometal perovskite solar cells” Mahboobeh Shahbazi, Hongxia Wang, School of Chemistry, Physics and Mechanical Engineering, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
Best Paper in the topic of Solar Resources / Meteorology
“QCPV: A quality control algorithm for distributed photovoltaic array power output” Sven Killinger, Nicholas Engerer, Björn Müller Fraunhofer, et al., Germany
Best Paper in the topic of Solar Thermal / Heating / Cooling
“Energy conservation and renewable technologies for buildings to face the impact of the climate change and minimize the use of cooling” Fabrizio Ascione, University of Napoli Federico II, DII – Department of Industrial Engineering, Napoli, Italy
ISES Global Leadership Award in Advancing Solar Energy Policy - in honour of Hermann Scheer
In recognition of the late Dr. Hermann Scheer (1944-2010), this award was introduced and presented for the first time in 2011 to pay tribute to the solar hero whose enourmous contribution and vocal political commitment to solar energy were so effective in bringing about energy changes globally. The award is presented to a person who has made significant contributions to the advancement of solar energy policy.
Recipient: Mika Obhayashi
Mika Ohbayashi is a founding member and Director at Renewable Energy Institute in Japan. The Institute is a non-profit think tank which aims to build a sustainable, rich society based on renewable energy. It was established in August 2011, in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident. Before joining the Institute, she worked for International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in Abu Dhabi as Policy and Project Regional Manager for Asia Oceania. She served as Deputy Director at the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies for 8 years since its establishment in 2000. She also worked for UKFCO at the British Embassy in Japan, as Advisor for Climate Change Projects and Policies before joining IRENA, and started her career in the energy field by joining Citizens' Nuclear Information Center in 1992.(CNIC is an anti-nuclear public interest organization). She coordinates many scientific study projects, takes leadership to team up various networks including national parliamentarians and local authorities, domestically and internationally to improve sustainable energy in society.
ISES Special Service Award
This award was introduced in 1995 to honour those who have made a distinguished contribution to ISES.
Recipient: Dr. Elimar Frank, Switzerland
Dr. Elimar Frank is Deputy Head of Sustainability Research at Forma Future Invest AG, Zürich, CEO of the Consulting Company Frank Energy GmbH and Lecturer in Swiss Education Programs on Renewable Energies. Dr. Elimar Frank is proposed to receive the ISES Special Service Award due to his great work organizing and securing the future development of ISES Europe and the EuroSun Conferences. Dr. Elimar Frank has been ISES Board member for a long period and member of the Executive Committee. He was President of ISES Europe for the period 2013-15 and Scientific Chair of the EuroSun 2014 Conference in France.