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T. Nejat Veziroglu

President, International Association for Hydrogen Energy5794 SW 40 St. #303, Miami, FL 33155, USA

Abstract: Engineers are problem solvers. T. Nejat Veziroglu, being a

Mechanical Engineer, has been interested in global problems such as thedepletion of fossil fuels and the environmental damage being caused bytheir utilization, and the ways and means of solving them. Right after theenergy crisis of 1973, he established the Clean Energy Research Instituite(CERI) at the University of Miami, in order to find solutions to the energyand environmental problems. CERI has conducted hundreds of r&dprojects covering energy and environment related problems. It hasorganized some sixty international conferences on heat and energytransport, environmental problems, alternative energy sources andhydrogen energy. It has published more than two hundred volumes ofconference proceedings. CERI also hosted more than three hundredscientists from many countries of the world as visiting scholars. Dr.Veziroglu proposed the Hydrogen Energy System as the permanentsolution to the depletion of fossil fuels and the environmental problemsthey cause at the CERI organized The Hydrogen Economy Miami Energy(THEME) Conference. Because of the high quality of the research carriedout at CERI, it was declared Center of Excellence by the U.S. Departmentof Energy.

Brief Biography of the Speaker: Dr. Veziroglu, a native of Turkey,graduated from the City and Guilds College, the Imperial College ofScience and Technology, University of London, with degrees in Mechanical

Engineering (A.C.G.I., B.Sc.), Advanced Studies in Engineering (D.I.C.) andHeat Transfer (Ph.D.). In 1962 after doing his military service in theOrdnance Section, serving in some Turkish government agencies andheading a private company Dr. Veziroglu joined the University of MiamiEngineering Faculty. In 1965, he became the Director of Graduate Studiesand initiated the first Ph.D. Program in the School of Engineering andArchitecture. He served as Chairman of the Department of MechanicalEngineering 1971 through 1975, in 1973 established the Clean EnergyResearch Institute, and was the Associate Dean for Research 1975 through1979. He took a three years Leave of Absence (2004 through 2007) and

founded UNIDO-ICHET (United Nations Industrial DevelopmentOrganization International Centre for Hydrogen Energy Technologies) inIstanbul, Turkey. On 15 May 2009, he retired from the University of Miami.

Dr. Veziroglu organized the first major conference on Hydrogen Energy:The Hydrogen Economy Miami Energy (THEME) Conference, Miami Beach,18-20 March 1974. At the opening of this conference, Dr. Vezirogluproposed the Hydrogen Energy System as a permanent solution for thedepletion of the fossil fuels and the environmental problems caused bytheir utilization. Soon after, the International Association for HydrogenEnergy (IAHE) was established, and Dr. Veziroglu was elected president.As President of IAHE, in 1976 he initiated the biennial World Hydrogen

Energy Conferences (WHECs), and in 2005 the biennial World HydrogenTechnologies Conventions (WHTCs).

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In 1976, Dr. Veziroglu started publication of the International Journal ofHydrogen Energy (IJHE) as its Editor-in-Chief, in order to publish anddisseminate Hydrogen Energy related research and development resultsfrom around the world. IJHE has continuously grew; now it publishestwenty-four issues a year. He has published some 350 papers and

scientific reports, edited 160 volumes of books and proceedings, and hasco-authored the book Solar Hydrogen Energy: The Power to Save theEarth. Dr. Veziroglu has memberships in eighteen scientific organizations,has been elected to the Grade of Fellow in the British Institution ofMechanical Engineers, American Society of Mechanical Engineers and theAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science, and is the FoundingPresident of the International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Dr.Veziroglu has been the recipient of several international awards. He waspresented the Turkish Presidential Science Award in 1974, made anHonorary Professor in Xian Jiaotong University of China in 1981, awardedthe I. V. Kurchatov Medal by the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy ofU.S.S.R. in 1982, the Energy for Mankind Award by the Global EnergySociety in 1986, and elected to the Argentinean Academy of Sciences in1988. In 2000, he was nominated for Nobel Prize in Economics, forconceiving the Hydrogen Economy and striving towards its establishment.