Dr. David Renné President of the International Solar Energy Society since 2010 and Associate Editor of the Solar Energy Journal in the field of solar resource assessment, Dr. Renné is also the Operating Agent of International Energy Agency Solar Heating and Cooling Programme Task 46 titled, “Solar Resource Assessment and Forecasting.”
Professor Weber is Vice President of ISES and acting Chair, European Solar Manufacturing Councile ESMC. Till mid-2018 he was CEO of the Berkeley Alliance for Research in Singapore, BEARS. Till the end of 2016 he was Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE and Professor for Physics / Solar Energy at the Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg, Germany. Prof. Weber studied Physics at the University of Cologne, Germany where he made his doctorate in 1976 and his habilitation in 1983. From 1983-2006 he lectured at the faculty of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering of the University of California, Berkeley - since 1991 as Professor of Materials Science. The topic of Prof. Weber's own research is semiconductor materials science for photovoltaic and microelectronic applications. He published more than 600 refereed papers, that were cited more than 35,000 times. In 2014, he received the Zayed Future Energy Prize from the Crown Prince of the United Arab Emirates on behalf of Fraunhofer ISE. In 2015-17 he served as president of the Association of European Renewable Energy Research Centers EUREC. He served as founding president of the German Energy Storage Association BVES (2012-16), and is a member of the German Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech).
I am a strong advocate for the rapid transformation of the global energy system to renewable energy for all, used wisely and efficiently. Working closely with ISES is an excellent way to contribute to the transformation. During my 40-year career as an atmospheric chemist specializing in assessments that bring science to support appropriate decision making related to energy and the environment, I have come to deeply appreciate the need for this transformation. I strive to effectively use my expertise in research/analyses, program development, and communications/marketing, along with my commitment to collaborative problem solving, to advance ISES’ work. My professional experience includes leadership positions at University of Texas (PhD Chemistry 1973), National Center for Atmospheric Research, Atmospheric Sciences Research Center at the State University of New York at Albany, Science & Policy Associates, Inc., and RAND. Ongoing activities include Global Emissions IniAtive (GEIA) coordinator since 1991 and science-based environment/energy advisor to a wide variety of public and private, and stakeholder consortium clients since 2002 through my company Panorama Pathways. In addition to being ISES Board Secretary, I also am Co-Chair of American Solar Energy Society Board of Directors (the USA Section of ISES).
Monica Oliphant, is Past President of ISES and an Adj. A/Professor at 3 Australian Universities. She was employed for 18 years in the electricity supply industry but now runs her own consultancy. She has received several awards in recognition for her work in renewable energy and has served on a number of Australian Federal and State Australian Government Energy Related Committees. Currently she is working to develop community-owned solar and energy efficiency projects together with local governments.
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).
Rabindra Satpathy specialised in Solar PV Power through his final year project in Electrical Engineering. He has been working in Solar PV Industry since 1984. He has worked with world leading solar PV companies such as BP Solar India, Siemens Solar, Shell Solar, Solar World , RIL Solar Group, TRINA Solar in various functions i.e. System design & Engineering, Quality, Project Management, Sales & Business Development and leadership roles. He is currently Chief Executive Officer- Renewable Power of Emami Power in India.
Steven Meyers is a researcher and PhD student within the Department of Solar and Systems Engineering at the University of Kassel in Germany, made possible through SHINE, a scholarship program funded by the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions). Before this position, he served as a solar engineer at Saudi Aramco and earned his M.S. in mechanical engineering at the Masdar Institute in Abu Dhabi.
Steven has dedicated his professional life towards the research, development, and deployment of solar thermal projects. He is currently researching the integration of solar and renewable heat systems for industrial processes to minimize fossil fuel use and carbon emissions. This work complements his other professional goal to realize solar heat projects, contributing towards to the carbon reduction targets for climate change mitigation.
For his efforts, Steven has been recognized in Forbes “30 under 30” list in 2012 and as a St. Gallen Leader of Tomorrow in 2010 and 2012.
Dr. Kemal Gani Bayraktar is Marketing Director of Izocam, with a mechanical engineering background in the field of energy. His interests are mainly focused on energy, renewables, insulation and construction technologies, policy, environment and climate change, low carbon economy, innovation, sustainability, clustering and vocational training. He is actively participating to regulatory works and working in NGOs. He represents Solar Energy industry as the Past President of Turkish Solar Energy Society and HVAC industry as the General Secretary of Turkish Society of HVAC & Sanitary Engineers, TTMD. He is also representing Republic of Turkey as ExCo Member in the IEA Solar Heating Cooling Program.
Prof. Dr. Andreas Häberle is director of the Institute for Solar Technology SPF at the University of Applied Sciences HSR in Rapperswil, Switzerland. Dr. Häberle is a physicist from the Technical University of Munich and earned his PhD at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in Freiburg, Germany in the field of concentrating solar thermal collectors. In 1999 he co-founded the company PSE AG that offers various technologies and services for the solar sector.
The institute SPF has been a driving force in research and development of innovative energy technologies for more than 30 years, with focal areas in energy efficiency and renewable energies in general, as well as solar thermal and solar electrical energy in particular.
Dr. Morse is the President of Morse Associates, Inc, a renewable energy consulting company formed in 1989. He is the former Senior Advisor of US Operations for Abengoa Solar, Inc. Dr. Morse was responsible for preparing the proposals for the 280 MW Solana and 280 MW Mojave Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plants and for securing loan guarantees for those two projects. Dr. Morse first became involved in renewable energy issues in the late 1960s when he served as Executive Director of the White House Assessment of Solar Energy as a National Energy Resource. In his work at the US Department of Energy he played a significant role in defining and managing major solar energy R&D programs, including Solar Heating and Cooling, PV and CSP. Dr. Morse was the Chairman of the Western Governors’ Association Solar Task Force and is Chairman of the Utility-Scale Solar Power Division of the US Solar Energy Industries Association. Dr. Morse is a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, received an M.S. in Nuclear Engineering from MIT and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University.
Aldo Steinfeld (PhD University of Minnesota, 1989) is Professor at the Dept. of Mechanical and Process Engineering of ETH Zurich, where he holds the Chair of Renewable Energy Carriers (www.pre.ethz.ch). From 1995-2014, he directed the Solar Technology Laboratory at the Paul Scherrer Institute. At ETH Zurich, he served as the Head of the Institute of Energy Technology from 2005–2007 and Associate Head of the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering from 2007–2009.
He served as the Editor of the Journal of Solar Energy Engineering (2005–2009), co-Editor of the CRC Handbook of Hydrogen Energy (2014), and is currently serving in several editorial boards. He has authored more than 300 papers in refereed journals, filed 28 patents, and supervised 38 PhD theses. His contributions to science and education have been recognized with the ASME Rice Award (2006), the Yellott Award (2008), the European Research Council Advanced Grant (2012), the ISES Farrington Daniels Award (2013), the ASME Heat Transfer Memorial Award (2013), and the ASME Kreith Energy Award (2016). Prof. Steinfeld is member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences.
Dr Ben Elliston has a diverse background in renewable energy and computer engineering having turned to renewable energy mid-career. Prior to 2010, he worked in private computer companies in Australia and the USA developing operating systems and related software for high performance computers. He has a broad interest in the renewable energy field including energy economics, grid integration of renewable energy, energy efficiency, electric vehicles and sustainable buildings. He is a member of the Utility Variable-Generation Integration Group (UVIG), the International Solar Energy Society and the Australian Passive House Association.
Dr Maria Wall is associate professor at the Division of Energy and Building Design, Lund University, Sweden. She has a MSc in Architecture and a PhD in Engineering. Over the years, her research has included different issues related to energy-efficient buildings as well as solar energy strategies. She is presently leader of the research project IEA SHC Task 63 on Solar Neighborhood Planning (2019-2023), including both passive and active solar energy strategies. She was former leader of the IEA SHC Task 41 on Solar Energy and Architecture (2009-2012) that focused on active solar technologies for buildings, especially architectural aspects, and was then appointed as leader for the IEA SHC Task 51 on Solar Energy in Urban Planning (2013-2018).
She was the main initiator and developer, and is also the Director of the 2-year Master’s Programme in Energy-efficient and Environmental Building Design at Lund University. This programme is enrolling international students from different backgrounds, both in architecture and in engineering, since interdisciplinary teamwork is needed when designing sustainable buildings and neighborhoods.
Rachana is a Sr. Engineer at NextEra Energy, the world's largest generator of renewable energy from the wind and sun. She has extensive experience in a variety of renewable energy technologies including energy storage, wind, photovoltaic, concentrated solar thermal and fuel cells. Prior to her current position, she worked as Research Assistant at Clean Energy Research Center at the University of South Florida and developed optimization algorithms for different renewable energy systems. Rachana holds a Doctorate Degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of South Florida and a Bachelor’s Degree in Energy Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT).
Dr. Viktoria Martin is Professor in Energy Technology at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. A graduate from KTH (MSc in Chemical Engineering 1993) and the University of Florida (PhD in Mechanical Engineering 1998), she has pursued a career in international research collaborations within the International Energy Agency as well as the EU, providing insight into a variety of leading research and education arenas. Dr. Martin has over 25 years of experience in education, research, and entrepreneurship in the area of sustainable energy, with special focus on thermal energy storage and heat driven heat pumping technology. She is the author/co-author of 100+ publications within her research area. Equally important to research is her work on high quality education within the field, and she is presently the director of a two-year MSc degree programme in Sustainable Energy Engineering with participants from all over the world.
Professor Klaus Vajen is director of the Institute of Thermal Engineering at the University of Kassel, Germany, where he holds the chair of Solar- and Systems Engineering, and furthermore distinguished professor of the Technical University of Kyrgyzstan in Bishkek. He holds a PhD in applied physics and is (co-)author of 300+ publications about (solar) thermal engineering, university education and energy policy. He is founder and director of the MSc-programme “Renewable Energies and Energy Efficiency” at the University of Kassel, as well as founder and head of the council “University Educations on Renewable Energies” with 120+ professors from German speaking countries. He developed and coordinates the Europe-wide PhD-education on solar thermal technology, together with Professor U. Jordan.
Klaus was member of the ISES Board of Directors from 2003-2011 and is a member again since 2018. He was Vice-president of ISES 2006-2007, founder of Young ISES (together with J. McIntosh) and Chair of the Solar World Congress 2011 in Kassel.
I’m a researcher within the Institute of Energy and Environment at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, where I also earned my D.Sc. degree. Since I was an undergraduate student in Electrical Engineering, I have dedicated myself to the research in renewable energy, solar photovoltaic systems design and applications and, more recently, their integration into the grid. Besides my involvement as a researcher in several R&D projects, I’m a permanent member of the Technical Committee responsible for the development of Brazilian technical standards in the photovoltaic field and a Board Director of the Brazilian Solar Energy Society (Associação Brasileira de Energia Solar – ABENS).
In May 2017, Christine Lins co-founded GWNET, the Global Women’s Network for the Energy Transition, which aims at empowering women in the sustainable energy sector.From July 2011 until April 2018, Christine was working as Executive Secretary of REN21, the Renewable Energy Policy Network of the 21st Century, headquartered at the United Nations Environment Programme in Paris/France. Between 2001 and 2011, Ms. Lins served as Secretary General of the European Renewable Energy Council in Brussels. Previously, she worked in a regional energy agency in Austria promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy sources.