Ga. Tech Researcher Recognized by EPA

Dr. Ajeet Rohatgi, a Regents’ and Electrical and Computer Engineering professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, was recently recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the American Solar Energy Society (ASES) for a lifetime’s contribution to making solar technology a realistic, low-cost energy solution.

The U.S. EPA honored Dr. Rohatgi as an Individual Climate Protection Award Winner in a ceremony recently held at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

In addition, ASES selected Dr. Rohatgi as this year’s Hoyt Clarke Hottel Award Winner, for contributions in solar energy technology, and will honor him at the SOLAR 2009 conference, in Buffalo, New York later this year.

Rohatgi founded Georgia Tech’s PV research program and later established the first University Center of Excellence for Photovoltaic Research and Education (UCEP), a program funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. In 2007, he founded Suniva, a Norcross, GA-based company, to commercialize the world’s most advanced low-cost high-efficiency solar cells.

“This is a critical time in the history of solar research and deployment. Never before in my career have I seen today’s confluence of technological advances, political will and economic conditions necessary to bring solar into the mainstream. I’m honored to receive such recognitions as America and the world embrace photovoltaics as a practical energy solution,” said Rohatgi.

Throughout his career, Dr. Rohatgi has pushed the frontiers of PV cell performance and cost through research into the effects of impurities in silicon solar cells, the design and modeling of solar cells and the development of new fabrication techniques that simultaneously speed manufacturing and reduce costs. Dr. Rohatgi has authored and co-authored over 375 technical papers about solar, set 14 solar cell world records and helped more than 40 of the world’s largest solar companies develop new technologies.

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