Person with the World's Largest Negative Carbon Footprint Wins the €1 Million Millennium Technology Prize
Innovation has revolutionized the power industry
The 2024 Millennium Technology Prize has been awarded to Professor Bantval Jayant Baliga of North Carolina State University, United States, for his innovation that has enabled dramatic reduction in worldwide electrical energy and petrol consumption.
The €1 million global award for technology recognizes Baliga's leadership in the invention, development, and commercialization of the Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT). Since its development in the 1980s, the IGBT has been the most important semiconductor device for making electrical energy use and petrol consumption more efficient and less polluting during the last 40 years. The efficiency improvements and reductions of fossil fuels consumption and cost, achieved by the IGBT, revolutionized the power industry. The technology has reduced global carbon dioxide emissions by over 82 gigatons (180 trillion pounds) in the past 30 years. This is equivalent to setting off carbon dioxide emissions by all human activity for three years, based on the average of the past 30 years' time frame.
Professor Baliga's innovation enables the worldwide green transition and mitigation of global warming by making electrification and the use of renewable energy efficient and profitable. All wind and solar power installations utilize IGBT-based technology to convert the generated electricity into a form that is suitable for consumer and industrial applications. The IGBT is an essential technology in electric and hybrid-electric cars, as well as in most other electric motors in consumer and industrial use.
The IGBT technology is everywhere around us all over the world, reducing energy consumption and making electricity use reliable: in medical diagnostic machines like X-Ray machines, CAT scanners and MRI units at the hospital; in microwave ovens and induction stoves in our kitchens; in air-conditioning and refrigeration for homes and buildings; in portable defibrillators, which were made possible by the IGBTs and are now saving countless lives around the world every year. The performance capacities of modern IGBT have expanded to the point that today IGBT-based power converters and inverters dominate nearly every major application with a power rating between 1kW and 10MW.
Professor Bantval Jayant Baliga, who was granted the title of Progress Energy Distinguished University Emeritus Professor earlier this month, said: "It is very exciting to have been selected for this great honor. I am particularly happy that the Millennium Technology Prize will bring attention to my innovation, as the IGBT is an embedded technology that is hidden from the eyes of society. It has enabled a vast array of products that have improved the comfort, convenience, and health of billions of people around the world while reducing carbon dioxide emissions to mitigate global warming. Informing the public of this impactful innovation will illustrate the betterment of humanity by modern technology."
Forbes Magazine named Professor Baliga the man with the world's largest negative carbon footprint when he was inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame in 2016.
Baliga and his team are currently working on two new inventions for further improvement of the efficiencies in the fields of solar power generation, electric vehicles, and power delivery for AI servers.
Baliga said: "My first recent invention, the Baliga Short-circuit Improvement Concept (BaSIC), is designed to eliminate the roadblock of poor short-circuit withstand time for Silicon Carbide power MOSFETs used in motor drives for industrial and electric vehicle applications. My second new invention, a Bi-Directional Field-Effect Transistor (BiDFET), enables the matrix converter for power electronic applications. Matrix converters offer unprecedented improvements in size, efficiency, and reliability when compared with existing voltage source inverters. This will have a revolutionary impact on power delivery and management according to power electronics experts."
Professor Minna Palmroth, Chair of the Board of Technology Academy Finland, the foundation awarding the prize, said: "The IGBT has already had and continues to have a major impact on supporting sustainability with improved living standards world-wide, while mitigating environmental impact. The main solution to tackle global warming is electrification and moving to renewable energy. The IGBT is the key enabling technology in addressing these issues".
"I am particularly happy that the prize illuminates an innovation that is at the same time absolutely critical, has an enormous impact, but is not known to the vast majority of people. I think it is a great way to emphasize the power of science and innovation".
Professor Päivi Törmä, Chair of the International Selection Committee of the Millennium Technology Prize, said: "Two thirds of the electricity in the world is used to run motors in consumer and industrial applications. Professor Baliga's innovation has allowed us to develop societies with electricity efficiently, while dramatically reducing energy consumption".
"Power electronics is a key enabling technology of any modern society in which automation of processes and energy systems plays an ever-increasing role. For the last 40 years, and still today, the IGBT is the most important power semiconductor device."
The Millennium Technology Prize will be presented to Professor Bantval Jayant Baliga in Finland on 30 October in an Award Ceremony that also celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Prize. The Millennium Technology Prize will be presented by its patron, the President of Finland. The Prize Ceremony will be globally streamed by the Finnish national broadcast company Yle.
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