UNIGE awards the Medal for Innovation to the Chair in Energy Efficiency

At the Dies Academicus ceremony on 13 October 2023, the rectorate of University of Geneva awarded the Innovation Medal to the Chair for Energy Efficiency, for the work carried out in the context of the partnership between the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and the local multi-utility company SIG (Services Industriels de Genève).

The recipients are:

• Prof. Martin Patel (UNIGE),Chair for Energy Efficiency
• Pierre Hollmuller (UNIGE), Head of the Energy Systems Group
• Christian Brunier (SIG), Managing Director
• Marcel Ruegg (SIG), Director of Academic and Institutional Relations

The starting point of the partnership between University of Geneva (UNIGE) and the multi-utility company SIG (Services Industriels de Genève) goes back to Prof. Bernard Lachal who headed the group « Systèmes Énergétiques » for more than 20 years until he retired in 2017. This group, which is now led by Dr. Pierre Hollmuller, analyses and improves real installations and practices in the field of energy systems. It was thanks to this successful collaboration that SIG suggested to expand the partnership, to fund the Chair for Energy Efficiency which is headed by Prof. Martin Patel and to later on also support the Renewable Energy Systems group led by Prof. Evelina Trutnevyte.

Across the globe, there are only very few professorships on energy efficiency and very few partnerships of this nature. SIG is a leader in the energy transition, with a strong focus on energy efficiency next to renewable energy. UNIGE is known for its interdisciplinary research in the energy domain, linking physics and engineering with economics, social sciences, environmental sciences and other disciplines. With their work at the local, national and international level, the energy groups at UNIGE contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) No. 7, i.e. to “ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all”.

Video (Extract from the Innovation Medal: 46:30 - 51:53)

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