On October 22, at 5 pm Beijing time, the Eni Award ceremony took place at the Palazzo del Quirinale in Rome, Italy, in the presence of the President of Italy Sergio Mattarella, some government officials and heads of Eni Company. Eni Award, also known as the “Nobel Prize for Energy”, is the highest award in the energy field.
At the award ceremony
President Mattarella presented metals to Wang Zhonglin, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and founding director of the Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems under the CAS, and other winners. He spoke highly of Wang’s research, especially the nanogenerators and Blue Energy technology, and showed high expectations for the application of Nano energy.
President Mattarella presents a metal to Wang Zhonglin
The Eni Award committee described Wang’s research as providing the energy technology to power the development of the Internet of Things, robotics and artificial intelligence. The committee recognized Wang as the inventor of triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs), the author of the research “Nanogenerator as Mobile Power Source for Internet of Things and for Large-Scale Blue Energy Harvesting” and the founder of the principle and technological road map for harvesting random mechanical energy from environment and biological systems for powering mobile sensors.
Dr. Wang at the award ceremony
The Eni Award is the most authoritative and prestigious award in the world's energy field. Together with the Turing Award for computing, the Fields Medal for mathematics and the Wolf Prize it is known as one of the highest awards in the natural sciences. Wang is the only Chinese scientist to have received this honor to date.
A screenshot of the official website of Eni Award
This edition of Eni Award has four categories, namely the Energy Frontiers Prize, the Energy Transition Award, the Advanced Environmental Solutions Award, the Young Talent from Africa Award and the Young Researcher of the Year Award. Wang Zhonglin won the Energy Frontiers Prize.
President Mattarella takes a group picture with winners, heads of Eni Company and related staff
Winning the award fully proved that the Nano energy theory and technological system created by Wang Zhonglin had been recognized by the global academia and industry. The new energy technology offers a new approach to harvest energy. This indicates that humans don’t have to solely rely on major categories of energy (like thermal power, hydro power, wind power, solar power and nuclear power) but can generate power from micro-nano-systems as we are entering an era of Internet of things.
Biography of Wang Zhonglin
Wang Zhonglin is a Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences, Dean of the School of Nanoscience and Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Professor of the Board of Directors of the Georgia Institute of Technology Lifetime School, Tenured Highwater Chair Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a member of the American Physical Society, the Scientific Development Association, the Materials Society, the Ceramic Society and the Microscopic Society. He’s also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in the United Kingdom.
Wang is an internationally recognized leader in the field of nanoscience and technology. He is ranked first in terms of the global nano-field H index and academic influence. He was called “the father of nanogenerators” for inventing nanogenerators and the self-powered Nanosystems. He coined the piezoelectric electronics and optoelectronics and invented piezoelectric and triboelectric nanogenerators and pioneered the original idea of self-powered systems and “blue energy”, making Nano energy a distributed mobile energy in an era of Internet of Things, sensor networks and big data. His research inspired the worldwide effort for harvesting ambient energy for micro-nano-systems, Internet of Things and sensor networks. TheBeijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems led by Wang Zhonglin has original theory, discipline and technology, taking lead in the research on nano energy and self-powered system.
Wang Zhonglin has made great achievements in scientific research. He authored over 1,500 articles released in world-class publications (more than 40 in Nature and Science, and their family journals) and seven treatises. He also held 200 patents and edited over 20 volumes of books.Wang has won seventeen international major awards, including the Thomson Reuters Citation Laureate designation.
Discipline development map of Nanogenerators and self-powered system established by Wang Zhonglin
By HUANG Qixia
Link to official website of Eni Award: https://www.eni.com/en_IT/innovation/eni-award/2018-zhong-lin-wang-energy-frontiers.page
