Professor Martin Green has just racked up another award for his decades work in the field of solar power research.
The Australian Academy of Science’s annual honorific awards recognise scientific excellence and this year, Professor Martin Green has won the prestigious Ian Wark Medal and Lecture for his world-record breaking work in improving efficiency of solar cells.
” His fundamental and applied research has led to, and will continue to lead to significant economic benefits both in Australia and worldwide,” says the award citation.
One of Professor Green’s relatively recent achievements was his role in the development of the Passivated Emitter and Rear Cell (PERC), which accounted for the biggest share of new solar cell manufacturing capacity added globally last year.
Professor Green’s Academy Of Science award will be formally presented at its annual three day celebration of Australian science, Science at the Shine Dome, in Canberra in May next year.
Professor Green has received a swag of awards and recognition over the years.
To name a few, in 2012 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia. In 2010, he won CSIRO Eureka Prize for Leadership in Science. In 2009, he was a finalist in the Zayed Future Energy Prize and in 2001, Professor Green received the Centenary Medal for service to Australian society and science in photovoltaics.
Professor Green’s work in solar PV spans over 40 years and he is sometimes referred to as the ‘father of photovoltaics’.
He attended the University of Queensland and completed his PhD at McMaster University in Canada, where he specialised in solar energy.
In 1974, he launched the Solar Photovoltaics Group at the University of New South Wales. Today, he is Scientia Professor at the University of New South Wales and Director of the Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics
“Publish or perish” is a phrase sometimes used to illustrate the pressure in academia to continually publish work in order to sustain a career. That has never seemed to be a problem for Professor Green – the volume of work he’s authored is staggering.
A true Australian hero, Professor Green’s work has played a significant role not only in the clean energy future of Australia, but the world.
