Aaswath Raman, assistant professor of materials science and engineering in the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, will receive the inaugural Nelson “Buck” Robinson Science and Technology Award for Renewable Energy from the Materials Research Society. The award recognizes an early-career professional for the development of new sustainable solutions for the realization of renewable sources of energy.
Raman’s research looks at controlling light and heat at the nanoscale, with applications in clean energy technologies, information processing, sensing, displays and communication systems. The Robinson Award recognized his innovative work to harness radiative sky cooling, a natural phenomenon where heat dissipates into the sky and space, as a new energy technology that can, among other things, cool buildings without using electricity. He is also the co-founder and chief scientific officer of SkyCool Systems, a startup company based on his radiative sky cooling research.
Raman joined the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering this year. He was previously on the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania. His honors include being named to MIT Technology Review’s annual Innovators Under 35 list. He is a recipient of the Sir James Lougheed Award of Distinction from the Government of Alberta, Canada, and the SPIE Green Photonics Award.
The Materials Research Society includes more than 14,000 members worldwide. Raman will receive the award at the society’s fall meeting, to be held in Boston later this month.
