Team

Biography: Thirty-six years of experience as a solar researcher and engineer, leading research teams and advancing the state-of-the-art of Concentrating Solar Thermal (CST) technologies. Expert on Thermodynamics, Heat Transfer, Optics, and Modelling of Energy Systems. Full Professor with Tenure of the Cyprus Institute (CYI) and Holder of the European Research Area (ERA) Chair in Solar Thermal Technologies for the Eastern Mediterranean. Current Vice-Chair and former Chair of the Executive Committee of SolarPACES, the Technology Collaboration Program of the International Energy Agency responsible for promoting the development and deployment of solar thermal power technologies and the solar-assisted manufacture of fuels and chemicals. Earlier, he served as Science Leader of the Solar Energy Systems Research Group of CSIRO (Australia’s National Research Agency); Director of the Australian Solar Thermal Research Initiative (ASTRI); General Coordinator of EU-SOLARIS; Director of the Solar Thermal Energy Department of CENER, the National Renewable Energy Centre of Spain; Chair and Full Professor of the Engineering Department of the University of Texas at Brownsville; Director of the Plataforma Solar de Almería of CIEMAT -the largest European solar research infrastructure; and Principal Investigator of the EC SOLGAS and SIREC solar tower technology R&D projects, which paved the way towards PS10, the first commercial solar tower power plant. Author of numerous scientific publications, and participation in a senior capacity in a large number of national and international expert groups and committees.