The ISES Fellow status can be conferred at any time with presentation at a special Reception, Congress or other suitable event, and represents a lifetime award of the Society. Initially there will be no restriction on the number of people that can be awarded with the status of ISES Fellow in any one year. This may be reviewed in future years. Fellows will have their name and a brief description of their expertise posted on a special section on the ISES website.

Nomination and Election Process

  • Nominations will be accepted at any time of the year and should be sent to the ISES Head of Secretariat c/o ISES Fellows committee
  • Preliminary nominations should consist of a few sentences describing the merits of the Fellows candidate and the nomination should be unknown to the candidate.
  • Self-nomination will not be accepted
  • Nominations for Fellows can be submitted by the membership at large and there should be at least 3 nominations before a candidate will be considered by the Fellows committee.  (At least one nomination should come from an existing Fellow).
  • Preliminary nominations will be considered by the Fellows committee once a year, at least 3 months in advance of when the award will be announced (either at a Congress or at an ISES Board meeting) in order to allow time for the full submission of final candidates to be evaluated and then presented to the Board  of Directors for electronic ballot.

Nomination requirements in detail
Any member of ISES who has been a member for at least ten consecutive years and has served with distinction in the advancement of solar energy utilization by way of research, education, public service, and/or service to ISES, is eligible for nomination to the grade of Fellow of ISES.

  • An eligible member may be nominated by any three members of ISES in good standing, at least one of which is a Fellow or a member of the ISES Fellows committee.  Each of the nominators shall provide a letter of support containing concrete examples of the nominee’s work, activities, or accomplishments that give evidence of service with distinction. Since at least one of the three nominators must be an existing Fellow, a non-Fellow nominator must contact a Fellow to second a nomination
  • The Fellows committee shall review each nomination. The Committee reserves the right to request additional information on a nominee, or to reject a nominee, if the Committee members feel that the submitted documentation is inadequate.
  • Each nomination statement should be at least 300 words but not greater than 1000 words and be accompanied by a cv of the candidate.
  • The Committee discourages the submission of papers written by nominees, though such papers may be referenced in the support letters along with a URL and/or a description of the positive results of these works.
  • The Committee shall recommend potential Fellows to the Board for final approval.
  • There is no requirement to make a Fellow award in any given year if there are no suitable candidates.

2021 Recipients

The 2021 Fellows are:

Steve Meyers, USA

He served on the ISES Board of Directors from 2016 – 2019, during the 2018 – 2019 term he was on the Executive Committee. Steve was the Project Lead for both infographic instalments ISES has developed so far: Dispelling the Myths in 2018 and Solar Thermal Heat for Industry Processes in 2019. He was very engaged to work with ISES headquarters in successfully developing these products which are very useful to ISES to dispel myths about solar energy.

Paulette Middleton, USA

Dr Middleton has been on the ISES Board of Directors since 2010 where she has played many valuable roles both as a member of the Board and the Executive. A non-comprehensive list includes, ISES Secretary, ByLaws reviewer, coordinator of the society’s strategic planning and implementation of new directions, sustainable development interests, membership growth, coordinator among country sections, and educational programs, including ISREE.  She was Chair of the Solar and Society theme for the Solar World Congresses 2013, 2015 and 2017 and ISREE Congress 2019 and 2021

Dave Renné as Immediate Past President, USA

Aldo Steinfeld, Switzerland

Prof. Aldo Steinfeld has an excellent track record in engineering research and development of solar energy technologies. He is among the leading scholars in the field of solar thermochemical fuels and the most cited researcher in the world in this emerging field, in particular for his innovative ideas and pioneering research on efficient conversion of concentrated solar energy. Prof. Steinfeld was an ISES Board Director from 2016 – 2018.

2019 Recipients

The 2019 ISES Fellows are the following Past ISES Presidents and the terms they served:

William Beckmann, USA (1986 - 1987)

Doug Lorrimann, Canada (1990 - 1991)

Adolf Götzberger, Germany (1992 - 1993)

Michael Nicklas, USA (1994 - 1995)

Eduardo d O. Fernandes, Portugal (1996 - 1997)

David Mills, Australia (1998 - 1999)

Cesare Silvi, Italy (1999 – 2001)

Anne Grete Hestnes, Norway (2002 - 2003)

Monica Oliphant, Australia (2008 - 2009)

and

Renate Böer, USA

2017 Recipient

Torben Esbensen is Director at Esbensen Consulting Engineers A/S since 1979, a company working internationally in the field of solar energy and energy design of buildings. He is current the Treasurer of ISES since 2007, was ISES President 2006-2007 and was the President of ISES-Europe 1997-99. In the period 2012-2013 he was also the ISES Secretary. Torben was Director of the ISES Board in the period 1990-96 representing the four Scandinavian countries and again from 1998 representing the small sections of ISES. Since 2003 Torben has represented the associated sections of Denmark and Finland. He was Organizing Chairman of the ISES Solar World Congress 2007 in Beijing, China, of the  ISES- Europe Congress EuroSun 2000 Copenhagen, and he was the International Chairman of the ISES Solar World Congress 2003 in Gøteborg, Sweden and of ISES SWC 2011 in Kassel, Germany. Torben Esbensen started his career in solar in 1973 as employed at the Technical University of Denmark. In 1979 he left the University trying to implement the research result into the practical design of building.

2015 Recipients

The first four Fellows were chosen in 2015 with the title given to those respected ISES members who previously held the ISES Honorary Director title:

  • Dr Wolfgang Palz
  • Professor Yogi Goswami
  • Emeritus Professor Dr Dieter Holm
  • Mr Peter Rae AO