WINNERS 2008
The Science and Technology prize was awarded ex aequo to Arthur J. Nozik (U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Laboratory in Golden, Colorado) and Stefan W. Glunz (Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in Freiburg, Germany. ), both active in the field of the conversion of solar energy using photovoltaic technology
Arthur J. Nozik has conducted fundamental research aimed at improving the use of solar energy in photovoltaic processes through the use of nanostructures.
The winning research opens up interesting prospects for the development of a new generation of highly efficient solar cells.
The activities of Stefan W. Glunz have made a significant contribution to the development of advanced photovoltaic structures. The use of a high-quality silicon-based material has made it possible to obtain internationally recognised results, such as the world record for efficiency and that which, in the short term, will have a marked impact on the industrial development of the sector.
The Research and Environment prize has been awarded to the well-known American scientist J. Craig Venter, one of the most important living geneticists who, in 2000, announced that he was the first to have complete a map of the human genome.
The prize has been awarded for a very recent (late 2007) research paper, published in the most recent issue of Science, in which he created in the laboratory a synthetic chromosome working on the DNA of a bacteria. Venter's results are a fundamental step towards synthetic genes, which promises an unlimited range of revolutionary applications in the energy and environmental fields, such as new processes for the sequestration of CO2 or the regeneration of polluted environments. From the energy point of view, opens the road to the design of new metabolic paths for the production of innovative biofuels from organic materials of biological origin.
The two Research Debut prizes have been awarded to the young researchers Silvia Cereda (Università di Milano Bicocca) and Gian Luca Chiarello (Università degli Studi di Milano), for research that promises interesting developments in the field of energy production.
