APS News

New Alternative Energy Fellowship

New award aims to boost innovative ideas for new sustainable energy.

December 6, 2013

APS has created a new fellowship for young scientists exploring promising research into alternative energy. The council voted in November to establish the Stanford R. Ovshinsky Sustainable Energy Fellowship using a donation from the family of the late physicist.

Winners of the annual award will receive $15,000 and a travel allowance to receive the award at an APS meeting. The award will be given to young physicists, people within ten years of receiving their PhD. The award committee also will have an eye towards researchers who show an entrepreneurial interest in bringing their research to the market.

Stanford Ovshinsky was an inventor who specialized in developing energy and information technology. He founded Energy Conversion Devices in 1964, which ultimately yielded more than 400 patents in amorphous film nanostructures. This research led to the invention of rewritable CDs and DVDs, as well as most modern silicon solar panels. In 2006 he left ECD and founded two new companies, Ovshinsky Innovations LLC to pursue information technology and Ovshinsky Solar, which specializes in alternative and renewable energy research. Ovshinsky passed away in 2012.

The Topical Group on Energy Research and Applications will likely issue a call for nominations sometime in mid-2014, with the first fellowship awarded in 2015.