WINNERS OF 2022 BÖER AWARDS ANNOUNCED

Professor Weidenkaff has been selected for the first Karl Böer Renewable Energy Mid-Career Award.

The awards will be presented on May 3 at the University of Delaware.

“Professor Weidenkaff’s contributions in materials for a range of sustainability applications set an incredibly high bar for excellence as the inaugural winner of the Renewable Energy Mid-Career Award,” said William Shafarman, director of the Institute of Energy Conversion, founded by Dr. Böer in 1972, and professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Delaware.

The Award Committee is composed of the presidents of the International Solar Energy Society, the American Solar Energy Society, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the American Physical Society, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the U.S. Secretary of Energy, or their designated representatives, a representative of the Böer family and the executive director of the Karl W. Böer Solar Energy Medal of Merit Award Trust.

The Böer Renewable Energy Mid-Career Award

The Mid-Career Award is presented to an active researcher, within 20 years of earning their highest degree, who is making significant contributions with promise for enduring impact in solar energy, wind energy, or other forms of renewable energy through research, development, or economic enterprise, or to an individual making extraordinary valuable and enduring contributions to the fields of solar energy, wind energy, or other forms of renewable energy in other ways.

Weidenkaff was nominated by David Cahen, professor emeritus at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, for “visionary leadership and pathbreaking in renewable energy and sustainability technologies with seminal contributions to materials for solar fuels, thermoelectric converters, catalysts, and self-regenerative functionalities.”

In his letter of nomination, Cahen said Weidenkaff is “one of the best and most interdisciplinary solid-state materials scientists working on renewable energy technologies, whose research reflects not only excellence and ingenuity but also impact on society.”

With a background in pharmacy and chemistry, she earned her doctorate in solid state chemistry at ETH Zürich. Before joining the faculty of the Technical University of Darmstadt, she was a professor at the University of Stuttgart, the University of Bern and the University of Augsburg.

About Karl Böer

Karl Wolfgang Böer was a trailblazing scientist in the field of renewable energy and founder of UD’s Institute of Energy Conversion (IEC), which marks its 50th anniversary this year. The IEC, the oldest solar cell institution in the world, has been a leader in photovoltaic research and is a U.S. Department of Energy-designated University Center of Excellence for Photovoltaic Research and Education.

Dr. Böer’s work led to significant progress in the field of renewable energy. He died on April 18, 2018, but the medals he endowed through the Karl W. Böer Solar Energy Medal of Merit Award Trust, established at the University of Delaware in 1991, continue to honor leadership in all forms of renewable energy. The first Böer Medal was awarded in 1993 to former President Jimmy Carter.