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Professor Michael Grätzel, Director of the Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and the pioneer of global technology leader G24 Innovations’ ground breaking technology, has been selected as the winner of the Albert Einstein World Award of Science 2012.
In 1988 Prof. Grätzel created the revolutionary Grätzel Cell, a dye-sensitised nano-structured solar cell, which now forms the basis of G24i’s energy harvesting technology.
The Albert Einstein World Award is a highly prestigious acknowledgement, given by the Interdisciplinary Committee of the World Cultural Council - outstanding personalities of the scientific community from five continents, including 25 Nobel Laureates.
The prize has been awarded to Professor Grätzel in recognition of his outstanding accomplishments to the welfare of mankind and the health of the planet, solving arguably one of the most important technical problems relating to energy and sustainability faced today.
Professor Grätzel first developed his cells at Lausanne, while studying how to mimic photosynthesis - the way that plants convert sunlight into the energy, that powers their metabolisms, and he is now ranked as one of the most highly cited scientists in the world.
As the inventor of the Grätzel Cell and a vital advisor to G24i, Professor Grätzel works closely with G24i’s science team as they constantly strive to advance G24i’s global leading energy harvesting platform.
Richard Costello, Chief Operating Officer of G24 Innovations, said: “In an age where our reliance on non-renewable fuels is increasingly being questioned for environmental, economic and political reasons, Professor Grätzel’s technology truly has the capacity to alter the way that we live. We at G24i strongly believe that this technology has the power to make disposable batteries obsolete, which would have an overwhelmingly positive effect on our carbon footprint around the world.”
In bringing Prof. Grätzel’s revolutionary cell to the commercial market, G24i has been able to create a ground breaking technology that generates electricity in low light conditions both indoors and outdoors. As a result, G24i has reduced capital manufacturing costs and improved its energy footprint through utilizing environmentally friendly raw materials.
As well as the Albert Einstein Award, Prof. Grätzel is the recipient of the 2006 World Technology award, the 2000 European Millennium Innovation Award, the Faraday Medal of the British Royal Society of Chemistry, the Dutch Havinga award, the Italgas prize, the Gerischer medal of the Electrochemical Society and the 2010 Millennium Technology Grand Prize.
He is a member of the Swiss Chemical Society as well as of the European Academy of Science and was elected honorary member of the Société Vaudoise de Sciences Naturelles.
The 29th Award Ceremony will take place on Wednesday, April18th at Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
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