Text: Mafalda Leite Photo: rights reserved
Text: Raquel Pires Photo: rights reserved
Michael Grätzel is the latest Honoris Causa by U.Porto
LEGACY
He is one of the most important chemical researchers of our time, having often been suggested as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in his area. Michael Grätzel was distinguished with the honorary title of Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Porto, as proposed by the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP), on the 20th of May, in the Main Hall of the Rectory. Of Swiss nationality and German descent, Michael Grätzel (Dorfchemnitz, 1944) was a pioneer in the field of photovoltaic technology by inventing dye-sensitised solar cells (DSSC), also known as “Grätzel cells”. Emerging, in turn, from DSSC, came perovskite solar cells (PSC), a new generation of cells, in whose development Michael Grätzel also played a decisive role, and with which the scientific community hopes to revolutionise photovoltaic technology, producing 50% more electricity per unit of panel area.
FEUP HIGHLIGHTS 2022 FACULTY OF ENGINEERING - UNIVERSITY OF PORTO
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Professor at the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne (EPFL), in Switzerland, where he directs the Photonics and Interfaces Laboratory, Michael Grätzel also opened a new path for the production of green fuels by developing nanostructured photoelectrodes, inspired by the DSSC photoelectrode. From mesoscopic materials, he created photoelectrochemical cells that efficiently produce chemical fuels
A recent Stanford University bibliometric ranking places Grätzel at the top of a list of 100,000 leading world scientists in different fields: 1,700 scientific papers published, with more than 320,000 citations and an h-index of 254 (Web of Science)
from sunlight. In this way, it has broadened the spectrum of renewable energy sources that can be stored. The Swiss professor and researcher has been collaborating regularly with the University of Porto, in particular with the Faculty of Engineering (FEUP), in highly prestigious European research projects and in supporting PhD students. Since 2008, Michael Grätzel has also maintained a close collaboration with professor and researcher Adélio Mendes, from the Department of Chemical Engineering of FEUP, with whom he co-authored the first patent for laser-assisted glass sealing of DSSC cells. This pioneer technology was sold for 5 million Euros to Dyesol (today GreatCell Solar), an Australian company of sustainable energies. And it was precisely Adélio Mendes that delivered the PhD student’s eulogy in the Honoris Causa ceremony, which also included the participation of the Rector of University of Porto, António de Sousa Pereira, the Director of FEUP, João Falcão e Cunha, and the former rector Sebastião Feyo de Azevedo, who served as “godfather” to the PhD student. As part of the Honorary Doctorate event, but later in the afternoon, a lecture was given by Michael Grätzel himself, in the Auditorium of the Faculty of Engineering.