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Women Energizing the Future: Online Solar Networking Session by ISES and GWNET
To celebrate International Women’s Day 2025, ISES and GWNET, the Global Women's Network for the Energy Transition are organizing a unique Solar Networking Session – Women Energizing the Future event.
This interactive networking session will connect students, early-career professionals, and leading women in the solar sector. The event aims to foster mentorship, knowledge-sharing, and career guidance, highlighting the diverse journeys of women in different phases of life and work.
As a special highlight, the organizers are happy to welcome representatives from the 2023 winning team of the ISES and Elsevier Renewable Transformation Challenge (RTC) - Solar Sister - the African initiative to empower women to eradicate energy poverty. Solar Sister is an inspiring and real-life example of women driving the change towards a renewable-powered future!
Participants will have the opportunity to spend one-on-one time in small groups with leading women, gain valuable career advice from professionals at different stages in their careers, learn about industry trends and opportunities, and make connections to ISES programs and the GWNET network. The event offers a unique chance for participants to interact with experts like yourself and gain insights that can help shape their professional paths.
Event Details:
- Date: March 5, 2025, at 2 PM UTC/GMT
- Format: Structured breakout room rotations, where expert speakers will engage with participants in small groups, with 2-3 sessions max, and each session lasting around 20 minutes.
- Duration: Approximately 2 hours.
Tentative Agenda:
- Welcome & Opening Remarks by ISES
- Welcome and Opening Remarks by GWNET
- Special Address by Solar Sister – Winner of the ISES and Elsevier Renewable Transformation Challenge 2023
- Speed Dating Session in Breakout Rooms (3 sessions, 20 minutes each)
- Introducing ISES and GWNET Networking and Mentorship Programs
- Final Reflections from the Panel
- Closing
Speakers
Prof. Viktoria Martin
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Prof. Viktoria Martin is Professor in Energy Technology at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. A graduate from KTH (MSc in Chemical Engineering 1993) and the University of Florida (PhD in Mechanical Engineering 1998), she has pursued a career in international research collaborations within the International Energy Agency as well as the EU, providing insight into a variety of leading research and education arenas. Prof.. Martin has over 25 years of experience in education, research, and entrepreneurship in the area of sustainable energy, with special focus on energy systems analysis, sector-coupling, and thermal energy storage. She is the author/co-author of 100+ publications within her research area. Equally important to research is her work on high quality education within the field, and she is presently the director of an engineering BSc degree programme in Energy and Environment, and teaches master level courses in sustainable energy systems.
Prof. Martin is an active ISES Board Member for many years and the president of ISES since 2024.
Christine Lins
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In May 2017, Christine Lins co-founded GWNET, the Global Women’s Network for the Energy Transition, which aims at empowering women in the sustainable energy sector.From July 2011 until April 2018, Christine was working as Executive Secretary of REN21, the Renewable Energy Policy Network of the 21st Century, headquartered at the United Nations Environment Programme in Paris/France. Between 2001 and 2011, Ms. Lins served as Secretary General of the European Renewable Energy Council in Brussels. Previously, she worked in a regional energy agency in Austria promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy sources.
Christine is an active ISES Board Member for many years and currently holds the office of membership at large representative.
Dr. Aline Kirsten Vidal de Oliveira
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Aline is an electrical engineer graduated from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC). During her undergraduate degree, she worked with microgrids and did an exchange program at Technische Universität München (TUM), in Germany, where she specialized in integrating renewable energy and electromobility. There, she also did an internship in energy management and electric cars at BMW AG. After graduation, Aline was a temporary teacher at the Federal Institute of Santa Catarina in Florianópolis for a year and also carried out technical trainings on the installation of photovoltaic systems. Since 2017, she is a researcher at the UFSC Solar Energy Research Laboratory (Photovoltaic / UFSC), where she did her PhD with a focus on the inspection of photovoltaic plants. There, she is now a Postdoc researcher and works in R&D projects in the area of photovoltaics, energy storage, green hydrogen and electrical vehicles. She is also a co-founder of the Brazilian Network of Women in Solar Energy (Rede MESol). Aline is also the President of the Brazilian Association of Solar Energy (ABENS) and the Director of External Relations in the Photovoltaic Collaborative to Advance Multi-Climate Performance and Energy Research (PV CAMPER).
Aline is an active member of the ISES Board since many years, active in the Young ISES committee and is the head of the International Organizing Committee for the ISES Solar World Congress 2025.
Dr. Gurleen Kaur
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Dr. Gurleen Kaur is a Technology and Solar Specialist at the International Solar Alliance, a coalition of over a hundred countries devoted to easing solar deployment globally. An engineer by profession, her profound appreciation for the liberal arts fuels her commitment to using technology for the greater good. Through her professional endeavours, she is dedicated to making affordable and clean energy solutions accessible to every household, thereby creating impactful solutions for people and the planet.
Dr Kaur's PhD from the National University of Singapore in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore paved the way for impactful research. Her doctoral research focused on developing low-cost and high-efficiency architectures for solar cells using contact passivation and has a significant global reach. With over a decade of experience in R&D and teaching, she has made specific contributions to the development and characterization of thin films, silicon solar cells, module reliability, and emerging PV technologies like Agrivoltaics and Floating PV.
For her enterprise, Dr Kaur has been recognized on numerous occasions. She has been named the Female Science Talent, Future Energy Leader (11 in the world) by BP plc, BP Scholar, One Young World Ambassador, Youngest International Energy Agency Delegate, Emerging Young Leader in Asia, and Young India Fellow.
In her free time, she likes to paint and travel.
Gurleen is an active member of the ISES Board as member of the Young ISES and ISES Conferences Committee.
Dr. Saman Nimali Gunasekara
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Dr. Saman Nimali Gunasekara is an Assistant Professor at Energy Technology, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden. She obtained her PhD in Energy Technology (2017) and MSc in Sustainable Technology (2011) from KTH, Sweden, and BSc. in Chemical and Process Engineering (2007) from University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka. She has over a decades’ research and teaching experience on thermal energy storage, district heating and cooling, renewable energy technologies, and from recent years additionally in refrigeration and heat pumping technology. In-parallel, Dr. Gunasekara has also been collaborating with various International Energy Agency (IEA) technology collaboration tasks and annexes, particularly concerning Energy Storage. She has numerous scientific publications as author/co-author and is actively engaged in education covering bachelors, masters, and PhD-level, towards realizing sustainable energy systems.
Saman is an active member of the ISES Board leading the ISES Outreach Committee.
Olasimbo Sojinrin
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Olasimbo Sojinrin is the CEO of Solar Sister, a social enterprise empowering women in rural Africa with clean energy and economic opportunities. With 18+ years in sustainable development, gender advocacy, and community engagement, she is a leading clean energy advocate and champion for women’s leadership in the sector. She previously served as COO and Nigeria Country Director, expanding Solar Sister’s impact. A recognized speaker and awardee, she has worked with global organizations on energy access and women’s empowerment. She holds degrees from the University of Lagos and an INSEAD Social Entrepreneurship certification. She is an Acumen and NLI Fellow.
Dr. Paulette Middleton
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For Dr. Paulette Middleton the ultimate vision is a world where people are living in harmony with each other and with nature. She has a 50-year professional career in energy and environmental issues with expertise in air quality and climate change science; program management and strategic planning; stakeholder dialogues aimed at policy development; and communication through diverse media. As an atmospheric chemist (PhD Chemistry 1973 University of Texas) specializing in scientific integrated socio-economic-environmental impact assessments that support decision making at regional and international levels, she has held leadership/executive positions at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Atmospheric Sciences Research Center at the State University of New York at Albany, Science & Policy Associates, Inc., and RAND. More recently, Paulette Middleton has been an environment/energy advisor to diverse organizations through my company Panorama Pathways (http://www.panoramapathways.net). Since 1990, she has been Global Emissions Initiative (GEIA) http://geiacenter.org/ coordinator. In the early 2000, Paulette Middleton began working with the International Solar Energy Society and its US section the American Solar Energy Society on accelerating the transformation to a sustainable and equitable renewable energy world for All where energy is used efficiently and wisely. Part of her efforts relate to creating a strong workforce that is an intimate component of the successful transformation. Paulette Middleton is particularly passionate about JEDI (justice-equity-diversity-inclusion advocacy), sustainable living, and kindness as guiding principles to all of our work.
Oluwatoyin Ogedengbe
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Oluwatoyin is a seasoned energy professional with a unique blend of technical, financial, and strategic expertise. She began her career in the oil and gas industry, where she held various technical and managerial roles for a decade. This experience, coupled with her subsequent work in energy investment banking, equipped her with a deep understanding of the energy sector. Oluwatoyin is currently dedicated to developing large-scale renewable energy projects for data centers, aligning with her commitment to achieving a sustainable energy future. She holds a B.Eng in Computer Engineering from Covenant University and an MBA in Finance, Policy and Operations from The Wharton Business School. Oluwatoyin is eager to contribute to the renewable energy industry through active involvement in ISES.