MOSCOW, April 18 (Itar-Tass) – The International Award Committee of the Global Energy International Prize declared the Global Energy Prize winners in 2013 at the head office of the ITAR-TASS news agency here on Thursday. Renowned Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Fortov and prominent Japanese scientist Akira Yoshino were awarded with the Global Energy Prize this year.
The awarding ceremony was held in the festive atmosphere at the Moscow head office of the ITAR-TASS news agency in the presence of dozens of journalists. Chairman of the International Award Committee Rodney John Allam announced the two laureates, who were selected from six nominees after long debates on Wednesday evening.
Vladimir Fortov was awarded for his pioneering work in thermodynamic, thermophysical, electrophysical, and electronic properties of fluids and construction materials. Akira Yoshino was awarded 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.
“For me it was much unexpected and it is a great honour to become a laureate of the prize, which is justly estimated as the most prestigious prize in this scientific sphere. This award is not only for me, but also for my fellow researchers, with whom we are doing research together,” Academician Fortov said after he was declared to be awarded with the prize. Fortov is supervising the experimental work studying the formation of quasi-crystalline ordered structures within plasma, including the unprecedented space experiment “Plasma Crystal”, which was launched at the Mir orbital space station in 1998 and continued at the International Space Station (ISS). The Global Energy International Award Committee awarded Akira Yoshino as the leading scientist in his sphere of research in the world, Chairman of the Global Energy Board of Trustees Academician Nikolai Laverov said. Laverov noted that Yoshino will continue the development of the rechargeable batteries with a higher energy density. Yoshino’s research will open up the prospects for the massive use of electric vehicles.
The Global Energy Prize amounts to 33 million roubles this year, the prize will be divided in equal parts between the two laureates.
The International Energy Prize Global Energy is an independent prize for outstanding scientific research and scientific-technical developments in the energy sphere, which contribute to a higher efficiency and ecological safety of the energy sources on the Earth in the interests of the entire humankind. The Global Prize Non-Profit Partnership instituted the prize in Russia with the support of leading Russian energy companies Gazprom, Surgutneftegaz and FGC UES. According to the Statute of the Global Energy Prize, the Russian president presents the prize to the laureates.
Since 2003 27 scientists from nine countries (Great Britain, Germany, Iceland, Canada, Russia, the United States, Ukraine, France and Japan) were awarded with the Global Energy Prize. Over 2,700 scientists from 59 countries are on the list of the scientists, who are entitled to be nominated for the prize. The list is updated every year. The International Awarding Committee, which consists of 25 authoritative scientists from ten countries, decides to award the laureates of the prize.