Michael Grätzel

Michael Grätzel
Born 11 May 1944
Dorfchemnitz, Sachsen
Residence Switzerland
Nationality Swiss
Fields photochemistry
Institutions École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Alma mater Technical University Berlin
Known for Dye-sensitized solar cells
Notable awards Harvey Prize (2007)
Balzan Prize (2009)
Millennium Technology Prize (2010)
Albert Einstein World Award of Science (2012)
Marcel Benoist Prize (2013)
King Faisal International Prize (2015)

Michael Grätzel (born 11 May 1944, in Dorfchemnitz, Saxony, Germany)[1] is a professor at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne where he directs the Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces. He pioneered research on energy and electron transfer reactions in mesoscopic-materials and their optoelectronic applications. He co-invented with Brian O'Regan the Grätzel cell in 1988 and pioneered the use of nanomaterials in lithium ion batteries.[2][3]

Author of over 900 publications, two books and inventor or co-inventor of over 50 patents, he has been the Mary Upton Visiting Professor at Cornell University and a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the National University of Singapore, and is currently a Distinguished Scientist at King Abdulaziz University.[4] He was an Invited Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, the École normale supérieure de Cachan (Paris) and Delft University of Technology.

Recognition

His work has been cited over 107’000 times (h-index 151) making him one of the 10 most highly cited chemists in the world.[5] He was a frequent guest scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado, was a fellow of the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science. In 2009 he was named Distinguished Honorary Professor by the Chinese Academy of Science (Changchun) and the Huazhong University of Science and Technology.

He has received numerous awards including the Millennium 2000 European innovation prize, the 2001 Faraday Medal of the British Royal Society, the 2001 Dutch Havinga Award, the 2004 Italgas Prize, two McKinsey Venture awards in 1998 and 2002 and the 2005 Gerischer Prize. In 2007 he was awarded the Harvey Prize of Technion for pioneered research on energy and electron transfer reactions in mesoscopic-materials and their optoelectronic applications. In 2009 he was awarded the Balzan Prize for the Science of New Materials. His most recent awards include the 2013 Marcel Benoist Prize, 2012 Albert Einstein World Award of Science,[6] 2011 Gutenberg Research Award, 2011 Paul Karrer Gold Medal. On 9 June 2010, Grätzel received Millennium Technology Prize, for development of dye-sensitized solar cells. The cash prize, worth 800,000 euros, was awarded, in Helsinki, Finland, by the President of Finland, Tarja Halonen.[7] In 2015 he received the King Faisal International Prize in Chemistry. He holds a doctorate from the Technical University of Berlin and honorary doctorates from the Universities of Uppsala, Turin and Nova Gorica. He was elected honorary member of the Société Vaudoise des Sciences Naturelles. Dr. Grätzel is a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee at the IMDEA Nanoscience Institute.

See also

Notes and references

External links

Preceded by
Robert S. Langer		 Millennium Technology Prize winner
2010 (for dye-sensitized solar cells) 		Succeeded by
Linus Torvalds
Shinya Yamanaka