Page 233 - ISES SWC50

9.2 ISES Presidents 1990-1999

Adolf Goetzberger

Adolf Goetzbergere (Germany) received his doctoral degree in Physics from the
University of Munich in 1955 and then spent 10 years in the USA—five years
with the Shockley Transistor Laboratory, Palo Alto, California, and five years
with Bell Telephone Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey where he published
fundamental work about the Si-SiO2 interface. In 1968, he returned to Germany
to accept the position of Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid
State Physics, and in 1981 he founded the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy

Figure 61: Professor Systems, in Freiburg, which grew into one of the major solar energy laboratories
Adolf Goetzberger, in Europe. In 1993 he retired as a Director of the Institute, but he carried on
President 1991-1993 many publishing and advisory activities in the field of solar energy. Some of his
scientific achievements included: fluorescent solar collectors, the first theory
of light trapping in thin silicon solar by diffuse reflectors, development of
transparent insulation for buildings, and the planning and construction of the
first self-sufficient grid-independent solar house in Germany in 1992. In 1995 he
became Doctor Honoris Causa of the Uppsala University in Sweden.

Mike Nicklas

Mike Nicklas (USA) graduated from the University of North Carolina with a
Bachelor of Architecture and formed the company Innovative Design in the late
1970s. By 1977, his company had completed 600 solar projects. By the 1990s
the firm was involved in the research and development of a building-integrated
PV system with heat recovery, and a roof-integrated high temperature solar
thermal system for industrial process heat applications. Nicklas served on many
state and federal committees and was in succession Chair or President of the
North Carolina Solar Energy Association, the North Carolina Home Builders
Figure 62: Mike Nicklas, Association, the Passive Solar Industry Council, and ASES. He was passionate
President 1993 – 1995 about solar energy and a global visionary, seeing a future for ISES as a huge
grassroots environmental NGO rather than a rather small technical society. His
argument was that this would deliver the message of ISES to many more people.

Eduardo de Oliveira Fernandes

He was the founder of an R&D group on Building Thermal Physics with major
pioneering activities in Portugal on passive solar technologies in buildings,
indoor air quality, and energy and the environment in the urban space. He was
a consultant for energy in buildings for DGXII-European Union (1988–92), for
EXPO ’98—Lisbon and its urban development (1993–98) and for various urban
projects in Europe. He was the leader of several EU large RTD projects on IAQ
issues for DGXII and on energy issues for DGXVII. He was chair of the Department
Figure 63 : Eduardo of Mechanical Engineering (1980–82); Vice-Rector of the University of Porto
de Oliveira-Fernandes, (1986–91); Secretary of State for Environment of the Portuguese government
President 1995 – 1997 (1984–85); and Chair of Portuguese Mechanical Engineers(1992–94).

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