The Prime Minister's Award for global innovation in the field of oil substitutes for transportation, worth one million dollars, is the world's largest award in the field
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Minister of Science, Technology and Space Jacob Perry announced today, October 6, the winners of the Prime Minister's Award for Innovation in the Field of Alternative Energy for Transportation: Prof. Michael Gertzel from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne and Prof. Thomas Meyer from the University of North Carolina in the USA. The two won the prestigious prize of one million dollars for developing technologies that have the potential to be used as a substitute for transportation fuels. The prize is awarded for the second year by the Prime Minister's Office, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Space and the Foundation.
The award, named after Eric and Sheila Samson, in the amount of one million dollars, is the largest financial award in the field of alternative energy in the world and is awarded to scientists who have significantly advanced the subject. The winners were chosen from a large number of candidates recommended for the award by university presidents and managers in industries from around the world and in Israel. The winners were chosen by an international committee of experts that submitted its recommendation for approval by a board of trustees headed by Prof. Yitzhak Apluig, former president of the Technion.
The Minister of Science, Technology and Space, Jacob Perry, said on the occasion of the announcement: "The award symbolizes the commitment of the State of Israel to promote the issue of oil substitutes, which is of utmost importance in every aspect of our life here - economy, security, science and society."
The prestigious Prime Minister's Samson Prize is awarded to the two winners for their groundbreaking research in the development of efficient and inexpensive processes based on "solar cells" to convert solar energy into electrical energy that will be used for electric propulsion in transportation. These cells can also be used to break down water to obtain hydrogen and oxygen, a critical step in the development of "solar-based" fuels for transportation. Fuels based on hydrogen are environmentally friendly fuels because only water is emitted when they are burned.
The first winner - Prof. Michael Gretzel is the head of the photonics laboratory at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. In his research, he developed a new type of solar cells named after him - Grätzel cells. The cells are based on sensitive color particles that mimic the photosynthesis process and convert the light energy into electrical energy that can be used directly for electric propulsion or can be used to break down water to obtain hydrogen and oxygen, which can be used as fuels for transportation. These cells have the highest efficiency known today in the utilization of solar energy and their production is much cheaper than normal solar cells.
Prof. Gertzel has published more than 900 scientific articles and is one of the ten most cited chemists in the world. Among the awards he won: the European Award for Innovation and Technology, the Leonardo da Vinci Award of the European Academy of Sciences, the 2000 Millennium Award for Technological Innovation and the Technion's Hervey Award. He was even chosen by "Scientific American" magazine as one of the fifty leading researchers in the world.
The second winner - Prof. Thomas Meyer, from the University of North Carolina in the USA and head of the National Center for Solar-Based Fuels, is a leader and pioneer in the fields of artificial photosynthesis and the development of solar fuels based on breaking down water to obtain hydrogen and oxygen. His research broke ground in the understanding of electron transfer processes following exposure to sunlight - a central process in the conversion of solar energy into electricity. His in-depth and comprehensive research made a decisive contribution to technological developments of cells for "artificial photosynthesis".
Prof. Mayer is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and has won many important awards.
According to the chairman of the board of trustees who chose the winners of the award, Prof. Yitzhak Apluig, "the basic scientific discoveries and technological developments of the award recipients advance humanity one step closer to the moment when we can use the available and unlimited energy of the sun for transportation and other needs and disconnect from the need to use the dwindling and polluting fossil fuels" .
The board of trustees that examined the recommendations for the award and decided on the winners included five renowned scientists from around the world, including Nobel laureate Prof. Aharon Chachanover; Head of the National Economic Council in the Prime Minister's Office Prof. Eugene Kendall; The Chief Scientist at the Ministry of Science, Technology and Space Prof. Nurit Yeremia; Chairman of Keren Hayesod Modi Zandberg; and a representative of the donor's family.
The prize will be awarded to the winners on December 3rd of this year as part of an international conference on oil substitutes promoted by the Directorate of Oil Substitutes in the Prime Minister's Office headed by Eyal Rosner, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Space and Keren Hayesod. Government officials from around the world, international experts and senior investors will come to the conference, which is being held for the second time in Israel, with the aim of holding a forum to formulate an international policy in the field of oil substitutes and position Israel as a leading industrial and knowledge center.
Eyal Rosner, head of the National Program for Fuel Substitutes, said: "Israel has set itself an ambitious goal - to reduce the use of fuel for transportation by 60% by the year 2025. In order to reach this goal, innovation, creativity and no less - a smart and strong policy are needed. Israel is preparing to be a world leader in this field, we must reduce dependence on oil and dependence on oil-producing countries and thus strengthen the world economy."
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I did not understand anything. What did they invent?
If there was a significant result, the whole world would know.
In my opinion, they presented some sort of thesis that in the future might lead to something.
can anybody tell me how to say the word sanson in hebrew?
Thanx XX
Where does the money come from? Taxes? So why is the award named after the Prime Minister and not after the poor of Israel??
The country is rotten from the top. There is no lack of capital/government, monopolization of the economy, corruption in the Knesset and the government backed by the government advocate, special medicine for former ministers, organized crime courtesy of a bankrupt police and merciful judges - now we have reached a fraction of millions like Nobel with his remorse? [Only that the millions are not taken from the dynamite profits but from taxes].
If you want to encourage growth, you need to develop M&P institutions in Israel on the subject of substitutes for oil. If you want to lower the cost of living, you should give subsidies to farmers (like Europe and America). Lower indirect taxation. And regarding housing, public housing must be expanded in large circles (like in Singapore). But the Israeli leadership is disgustingly egotistical, and does not count the citizens.