Kaushik Rajashekara, an Indian-origin professor of engineering at the University of Houston, has won the prestigious Global Energy Prize for outstanding contributions to transportation electrification and energy efficiency technologies while reducing power generation emissions.
Only three people in the world were selected this year for the honour, bestowed by the Global Energy Association, out of a record 119 nominations from 43 countries.
Rajashekara is joined as a 2022 laureate by Viktor Orlov, chief specialist of the Centre for Innovative Technologies (Rosatom in Russia) and pioneer in thermonuclear physics; and Mercouri Kanatzidis, professor of chemistry and materials science at Northwestern University and senior researcher at the Argonne National Laboratory.
The awarding ceremony will be held during Russian Energy Week in Moscow on October 12-14.
Rajashekara is engaged in power plants for electric, hybrid and fuel cell vehicles; electric and hybrid electric aircraft systems; hybrid flying vehicles and electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles. He is the owner of 36 US patents and 15 foreign patents.