This year the prize laureates selected by the International Committee are Viktor Orlov, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (Russia); Kaushik Rajashekara, Distinguished Professor of Engineering at the University of Houston (USA), and Mercouri Kanatzidis, a senior researcher at the Argonne National Laboratory (USA).

«The transformation of energy markets has been creating additional demand for innovation in energy production and consumption, whether it is nuclear power renaissance, developments in photovoltaic panels or the transport electrification, which changes the image of the automotive industry. The winners of the 2022 Global Energy Prize have made a significant contribution to the development of these energy sectors. All this once again underlines how small is the distance between fundamental research and life of the industry,” Alexander Novak said.

“This year marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Global Energy Prize. The Rosseti Group supports this initiative practically throughout its entire path, as it contributes to the unification of the world scientific community and allows us to raise significant questions for all of humanity. The laureates’ research aims to develop not only new sources of energy, which are currently receiving special attention, but also conventional energy, which forms the basis of energy supply systems,” said Andrey Ryumin, General Director of PJSC Rosseti, in his speech.

Viktor Orlov received the Prize from the Deputy Prime Minister. “Thank you for such a deep appreciation of my work. I would like to thank my colleagues who nominated me for this award. I would also like to mention the engineers of the Faculty of Physics of Moscow University, with whom I worked at the world’s first nuclear power plant: this experience allowed me to master a number of technical knowledges, without which it is impossible to study nuclear energy,” the laureate noted.

The US scientists Mercouri Kanatzidis and Kaushik Rajashekara made a video address to the participants and the guests of the ceremony.

“Global Energy Association should promote this Prize more among various countries and recognise the talent of the people who are working to improve the environment and reduce the fuel consumption and reduce the emissions. All these are possible with more and more encouragement for research, and prizes like Global Energy Prize definitely will help for the researchers to aim for something for the research to be more fruitful for humankind,” Prof. Rajashekara emphasised in his video message.

“I’m thrilled to receive the Global Energy Prize and I’m very proud to have been nominated for it. I’m very honored to receive it and be recognised among these individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the renewable energy science and technology and to the community of solar energy researchers,” said Prof. Kanatzidis.

During the ceremony, Alexander Novak, on behalf of Global Energy, presented a foreign scientist with an Honorary Diploma of the Association “For the contribution made to the development of energy in the African region countries”, which was received by Luke Chika Eme, the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University in Nigeria.

This year, the Honorary Diploma was awarded to a foreign scientist for the first time. Earlier, the association established such an award for Russian scientists, for their contribution to the development of the energy industry. The decision to encourage foreign specialists with the Honorary Diploma is due to the geography of applications for the Global Energy Prize, which has expanded significantly over the past three years. The nomination submissions from the countries of the developing world have drawn attention of the international scientific community to the work of scientists from the states of Africa and Latin America, in particular.