ISES Awards 2025 - Winners announced!
ISES Awards - Honouring Excellence
Since 1975, ISES has been honouring those who have made significant achievements and contributions toward advancing solar energy applications and the awards are presented biennially at the Solar World Congress.
The awards season 2025 started with an open call to ISES members and contacts from around the world and we received many commandable applications. The ISES Awards Committee carefully reviewed all applications and now we are happy to announce the winners for the 2025 ISES awards as follows:
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.
This year's award is presented to Dr. Robert Habeck, former Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action and former Vice Chancellor of Germany.
Dr. Habeck has been a leading figure in German politics representing Alliance 90/The Greens since the early 2000s. From 2002 to 2018, he served at the state level in Schleswig-Holstein, where he held positions as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Energy, Agriculture, the Environment, Nature, and Digitalisation.
In 2018, Dr. Habeck became co-leader of Alliance 90/The Greens. From 2021 to 2024, he was a central member of the German federal government, serving as Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action and as Vice Chancellor.
During his tenure, Dr. Habeck played a pivotal role in advancing Germany’s renewable energy transition. Under his leadership, the 2022 “Easter Package” introduced a series of ambitious measures to accelerate the deployment of solar and wind energy across the country.
Notably, Dr. Habeck established the classification of renewable energy projects as being of “overriding public interest”—a landmark achievement that significantly strengthened the legal and policy framework for renewables in Germany. This milestone aligns directly with the ISES mission: 100% renewable energy for all.
These accomplishments were achieved amid the challenges of the energy crisis triggered by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine — making his leadership all the more commendable and deserving of this recognition.
Learn more about the Award and all past recipients here.
Farrington Daniels Award
Presented since 1975, this is the premier world award for outstanding intellectual leadership in the field of Solar Energy. Winners have an established & long-standing international reputation and have made significant contributions to the work and goals of ISES. The winner is invited to deliver an address at the ISES Solar World Congress.
This year's award is presented to Prof Ranga Pitchumani.
Professor Pitchumani is the George R. Goodson Endowed Chair Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech, USA. At Virginia Tech, he directs the Advanced Materials and Technologies Laboratory (amtl.me.vt.edu), which focuses on research in the areas of energy and materials. From 2011–2015, Prof Pitchumani served in an invitational role as the Chief Scientist for the SunShot Initiative at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), where he was the Founding Director of the SunShot Concentrating Solar Power program and Director of the Solar Grid Integration program. In his role at the DOE, he defined bold national goals for achieving cost-competitive solar energy technologies and their ubiquitous integration into the electric grid.
Prof Pitchumani is the Editor-in-Chief of the ISES journal Solar Energy and serves on the editorial team of many journals. He also served as the U.S. representative on the Executive Committee of the International Energy Agency’s SolarPACES and on the Advisory Board of Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA)’s Australian Solar Thermal Research Initiative (ASTRI). Among his professional honours, he is a Life Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and a recipient of the ASME Frank Kreith Energy Award for significant contributions to a secure energy future as well as the Hoyt Clarke Hottel Award and the Charles Greeley Abbot Award from the American Solar Energy Society for leadership and pioneering contributions in the development of cost-effective solar energy. For his career accomplishments, he was recognized with the Distinguished Alumnus Award by his alma mater, the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.
Achievement through Action Award - In Memory of Christopher A. Weeks
This award honours important contributions to the harnessing of solar energy for practical use or a new concept, development or product for the same purpose. Receipts can be individuals, groups or corporate bodies. It has been presented since 1983 and the award includes a certificate and a cash prize derived from funds donated by Mrs. Marta Weeks, a long-time supporter of ISES and Platinum Member.
This year’s award is presented to Harish Hande from India.
Harish Hande, the founder and Chief Executive of SELCO Foundation, is a renewable energy entrepreneur with over 30 years of grassroots experience in meeting the energy needs of underserved populations. He is also the founder of SELCO India – a pioneering last mile rural energy enterprise based in India since the early nineties.
SELCO sees the pressing need to develop a fertile environment to enhance sustainable energy access solutions for the poor. This energy access increases incomes, improves quality of life, and alleviates poverty, turning energy consumers into asset owners. Last mile energy solutions have clear commercial viability, and SELCO works to combine technical and non technical aspects focused on alleviating poverty in a sustainable manner.
Today, SELCO is an umbrella of organizations, each tasked to address gaps in the energy access ecosystem. SELCO India established in 1995 runs grassroots operations which sell, install, and service decentralized energy solutions like solar lights systems for households, institutions, digital education, livelihood appliances etc. financed by local financial institutions. SELCO Foundation established in 2010 is an open-source innovation research lab for replicable social innovations across areas: livelihoods, education, and health. SELCO’s incubation program created in 2012 nurtures and catalyzes aspiring clean energy enterprises that deploy and maintain sustainable solutions for underserved communities. Finally SELCO Fund registered in 2016 is an impact fund that seeks to deploy patient capital such as equity or debt to last mile energy access enterprises. SELCO operates at every level of the system and at every point in the supply chain, to build an ecosystem that increases accessibility, affordability, and appropriate renewable energy solutions for the poor. Collectively SELCO has so far impacted over 6 million people.
Harish, graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur and holds a Masters and PhD from University of Massachusetts, USA. In recognition of his vision and the efforts of SELCO,he has been awarded national and international awards including the reputed Zayed Future Energy Prize in 2018 and the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship also in 2018. In 2011, Harish was conferred the Ramon Magsaysay Award in recognition of his vision to catalyse development outcomes via sustainable energy.
Learn more about the Achievement through Action Award and all past recipients here.
ISES Fellows
Geoff Stapleton
The ISES Fellow Award recognizes those who have given many years of distinguished service to ISES and have advanced the use of solar and renewable energy through research, education, communication and deployment.
This year, we are honored to present this award to Geoff Stapleton.
Geoff Stapleton specialized in solar (PV) energy in the final year of his electrical engineering degree in 1981. He has worked in the solar industry since 1987. In 1998 he was one of the co-founders of Global Sustainable Energy Solutions Pty Ltd (GSES). GSES is a multi-disciplinary organization specializing in professional engineering and training services across the Renewable Energies sector. In 2010 through funding from REEEP, GSES acted as project manager and helped the industry in the Pacific create their own industry association known as Sustainable Energy Industry Association of Pacific Islands (SEIAPI).
At ISES, Geoff has been part of the Board of Directors for many years, served as the ISES treassurers and lead important ISES projects such as SWC50 - the 50 year celebration of the ISES Solar World Congresses in 2020 - as well as most notably the ISES Online Museum of Solar Energy, a fully virtual museum of solar history, research and development.
Simon Furbo
Simon Furbo, born in 1951, holds a Ph.D. in heat storage for solar heating systems from the Technical University of Denmark, where he also earned his Master of Engineering in 1976. From 1976 to 1995, he worked as a researcher at the Technical University of Denmark, and between 1984 and 1987, he also worked part-time at Esbensen Consulting Engineers Ltd. Since 1996, he has been an Associate Professor at the Technical University of Denmark, where he leads the solar energy research group, supervises Ph.D. students, and teaches courses on solar heating systems. He has contributed to the Young ISES Programme and supported student courses alongside ISES conferences.
His research focuses on solar heating systems, heat storage—including heat of fusion storage—solar collectors, PVT panels and systems, solar heating plants, and testing methods for heat storage, solar collectors, and solar heating systems. Simon has collaborated closely with universities, research institutes, consulting companies, and manufacturers in Denmark and internationally. He has also participated in numerous EU and International Energy Agency projects, working with industry partners to improve the design of heat storages, solar collectors, and solar heating systems.
Simon has served on multiple scientific committees and review panels. He was the scientific secretary for the EuroSun 2000 Congress in Copenhagen and the Arctic Solar Energy Symposium 2001 in Greenland. He has been a member of assessment committees for 19 Ph.D. studies worldwide and has evaluated research proposals for various national research councils and scientific journals. Between 1996 and 2022, he was responsible for education in solar heating systems for university and Ph.D. students.