Global Energy Prize Honors Scientists for Rechargeable Batteries, Physics Work With $1 mln Prize

MOSCOW, April 18, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --



The Global Energy Prize, one of the world's most prestigious awards recognizing outstanding achievements across the world in energy research and technology, on Thursday announced this year's two honorees for their important contributions and research in rechargeable batteries and physics.

The prize comes with a total USD 1.2 million (RUB 38 million) endowment to help laureate honorees fund future research projects. It is the largest energy research grant of its kind in the world.

The 2013 Global Energy Prize laureates are:

• Dr. Akira Yoshino of Japan for his ground-breaking work in the development of the lithium-ion rechargeable battery, the beating heart of mobile electronic devices, electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles. Dr. Akira is a Fellow at the Asahi Kasei Corp. and is President of the Lithium Ion Battery Technology and Evaluation Center (LIBTEC) in Japan.
• Mr. Vladimir Evgenyevich Fortov, the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Department for Power Industry, Mechanical Engineering, Mechanics and Control Processes in Russia, for his pioneering work in thermodynamic, thermophysical, electrophysical, and electronic properties of fluids and construction materials.

Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, hailed this year's honorees and said they represented the best of the Global Energy Prize's rich and growing tradition. "Since its inception, the Global Energy Prize has been one of the most prestigious international awards, rallying around shared goals the creative community of talented scientists, researchers and experts in the field of energy from Russia and many other countries," President Putin said.

This year's Global Energy Prize honorees were announced before a globally represented audience of scientists, diplomats and journalists at the RIA-Novosti Press Center in Moscow. "It is a tremendous honor to be here among this distinguished crowd and to be recognized in this way. I'm very humbled by this," said Mr. Yoshino at today's ceremony.

This year's laureates were selected from a field of 82 world class researchers by their peers. GEP candidates can be nominated only by the highest-rated scientists, which include Laureates of the Kyoto, Max Planck, Wolf and Balzan prizes and Nobel Prize laureates in physics or chemistry.

http://www.globalenergyprize.org/en/

SOURCE Global Energy Prize