PHOTON International The Photovoltaic Magazine

Three awards for Joachim Luther

The European PV conference in Barcelona presented the perfect opportunity to award one of the highest honors in the area of solar energy.

	© Norbert Michalke for photon-pictures.com
Joachim Luther (second from left) was awarded the Becquerel Prize in Barcelona. Luther's predecessor at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE), Adolf Goetzberger, likewise received the same prize seven years ago at the European PV conference – and, as fate would have it, that conference was also in Barcelona.

The EU commission awarded the Becquerel Prize 2005 to professor Joachim Luther, head of the Freiburg, Germany-based Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE), on June 6. The award is named after the French physicist, Alexandre Edmond Becquerel, who discovered the PV effect in 1839 – not to be confused with his son, Antoine Henri, who received the Nobel Prize for physics in 1903 together with Marie and Pierre Curie for work on the radioactive radiation of uranium.

The award committee honored Joachim Luther for his contribution to the scientific successes of ISE, for his efforts in technology transfer between research and industry, and for his engagement in national and international bodies. The physicist, born in Hanover, Germany in 1941, started out mainly involved in atomic physics and laser spectroscopy. After he became a professor for Experimental Physics at the University of Oldenburg in 1974 at the age of 33, he began his work on renewable energy systems and »energy meteorology.« In 1993, he took a position as professor of Solid State Physics and Physical Fundamentals of Solar Energy Use in Freiburg and at the same time, also took over the management of ISE, the workforce of which has more than doubled under his leadership to a current figure of 410. Luther will soon be retiring from his current post, and ISE is searching for his successor.

Only 10 days after the award ceremony in Barcelona, the ISE manager heard his praises sung once again as he accepted the 16^th International Rhineland Prize for Environmental Protection in Cologne, Germany. The prize, which is given by the TÜV Group and includes a cash award of €25,000 ($30,260), was given to him for his research »in the area of solar energy technologies as a modern energy source« and also in recognition of his work as leader of the Freiburg, Germany-based institute.

Finally Luther was honored with the Special Service Award of the International Solar Energy Society (ISES) at the 50^th ISES Solar World Congress held in Orlando, Florida in early August. ISES chose Luther because of his great efforts helping to improve the organization's scientific magazine Solar Energy during his tenure as editor in chief from 1999 to 2002, his continuous support of ISES, and his contributions as a board member from 1992 to 2001.