Page 111 - ISES SWC50
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Graeme Robertson (1944-1996)
Country: New Zealand
Year Started Research: 1970’s
Title of Research: Passive Solar architecture
University: University of Auckland
Still Active in Research: No
Graeme Robertson was person of action, energy, passion for the environment. As senior lecturer School of
Architecture, University of Auckland and member of the Australia and New Zealand Solar Energy Society (ANZSES)
for decades, he made his mark not just on those around him, but importantly with students and the world at large.
He had vision and passion, right from a schoolboy when he would trudge to school, hand full of books and a bag
full of Ban the Bomb leaflets! He was, from the beginning, impatient to impart his enthusiasm to save the planet
to everyone. Active within the Passive and Low Energy Architecture (PLEA) groups of ANZSES and ISES, he had
an absolute confidence that the next generation of students would find the solutions for a sustainable world. He
championed energy efficiency, renewable energy and passive solar design in all buildings, particularly commercial
buildings, as well as being an acknowledged world leader in sustainability. In 1991, Graeme published his seminal
article Environmental response, in Architecture New Zealand, where he considered that the greenhouse effect and
the associated global warming must be taken into account and not ignored anymore, arguing that architects needed
to become part of the sustainable movement. He underlined that global warming was not a Third World tropical
rainforest problem, which was a common misunderstanding, but rather a problem that was created by developed
countries. Graeme was a generator of legends, and his contribution to New Zealand’s NZIA Environmental Policy
and the Environmental Position Papers set a standard which the rest of the world has followed.
Roberto Roman ( 1945 -2019)
Country: Chile
Year Started Research: 1965
Title of Research: Solar Energy
University: Universidad de Chile
Still Active in Research: No
Roberto Hernán Román Latorre, was by profession a Civil Mechanical Engineer, specialized in Solar Energy in
Argentina, with postgraduate studies at the Heliophysics Department of the University of Provence, France and at
the International Center for Theoretical Physics of Trieste, Italy; He was associate professor in the Department of
Mechanical Engineering of the Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of the University of Chile and researcher
at the Solar Energy Research Center (SERC-Chile), vice president of membership affairs of the International Solar
Energy Society (ISES), and researcher and consultant in renewable energies both nationally and internationally, as
well as the creator of EcoMaipo, an organization dedicated to education, training and bringing renewable energy
to less favored sectors. Roberto Román entered the University of Chile in the 1960s, served as an academic at
the Faculty of Physical Sciences and Mathematics until he was 74 years old. The professor and researcher, was
much loved by his students and his peers, trained several generations of students, guiding professor of more than
a hundred theses considered by his closest circle, as a passionate about “solar energy” and “ teaching “, in addition
to his teaching role, he held various positions of responsibility, in the academy he was elected as the first director
of its academic unit” Department of Mechanical Engineering “a position that he held twice more in 1996 and 2004.
Internationally he was an ISES member since 1979 and was on the ISES board of Directors in 1991, 2010, 2012
and 2016. He also held the Vice Presidency of ISES Membership Affairs 2011-2012.
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