ISES Board of Directors 2017

ISES Executive Committee

Geoff Stapleton

ISES Member at Large Representative
Australia

Geoff Stapleton specialized in solar (PV) energy in the final year of his electrical... Read more

Geoff Stapleton specialized in solar (PV) energy in the final year of his electrical engineering degree in 1981. He has worked in the solar industry since 1987. In 1998 he was one of the co-founders of Global Sustainable Energy Solutions Pty Ltd (GSES). GSES is a multi-disciplinary organization specializing in professional engineering and training services across the Renewable Energies sector. In 2010 through funding from REEEP, GSES acted as project manager and helped the industry in the Pacific create their own industry association known as Sustainable Energy Industry Association of Pacific Islands (SEIAPI). 

Torben V. Esbensen

ISES Treasurer
Denmark

Monica Oliphant

ISES Immediate Past President
Australia

Monica Oliphant, is Past President of ISES and an Adj. A/Professor at 3 Australian... Read more

Monica Oliphant, is Past President of ISES and an Adj. A/Professor at 3 Australian Universities. She was employed for 18 years in the electricity supply industry but now runs her own consultancy. She has received several awards in recognition for her work in renewable energy and has served on a number of Australian Federal and State Australian Government Energy Related Committees.   Currently she is working to develop community-owned solar and energy efficiency projects together with local governments.

Dr. Alexandros Charalambides

ISES Member at Large Representative
Cyprus

Dr Alexandros Charalambides is a full-time Assistant Professor at the Department of... Read more

Dr Alexandros Charalambides is a full-time Assistant Professor at the Department of Environmental Science and Technology and he has always been in favour of promoting entrepreneurship and bringing research and innovation to industry, winning various business competitions, like the Cyprus Entrepreneurship Competition of the University of Cyprus, the Business Challenge of the Entrepreneurship Centre of Imperial College London, and more recently the Harry Otten Award in Innovation in Meteorology. He is the founder of a young start-up, ENERMAP, the award winner of the Open Innovation Slam in Berlin, Germany (best start-up out of 57 submitted), and of Chrysalis LEAP, the first accelerator in Cyprus. Through his positions at ENERMAP and Chrysalis LEAP, he was given the opportunity to be trained and certified by MIT as a trainer on "Disciplined Entrepreneurship".

Dr. David Renné

ISES President
USA

Dr. David Renné President of the International Solar Energy Society since 2010 and Associate... Read more

Dr. David Renné President of the International Solar Energy Society since 2010 and Associate Editor of the Solar Energy Journal in the field of solar resource assessment, Dr. Renné is also the Operating Agent of International Energy Agency Solar Heating and Cooling Programme Task 46 titled, “Solar Resource Assessment and Forecasting.”

Prof. Eicke Weber

ISES Vice President
Germany

Professor Eicke R. Weber is Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems... Read more

Professor Eicke R. Weber is Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE and Professor for Physics / Solar Energy at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics and at the Faculty of Engineering at the Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg, Germany.  Prof. Weber studied Physics at the University of Cologne, Germany where he made his doctorate in 1976 and his habilitation in 1983. From 1983-2006 he lectured at the faculty of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering of the University of California, Berkeley - since 1991 as Professor of Materials Science. 

Dr. Paulette Middleton

ISES Secretary
USA

I am a strong advocate for the rapid transformation of the global energy system to renewable... Read more

I am a strong advocate for the rapid transformation of the global energy system to renewable energy for all, used wisely and efficiently. Working closely with ISES is an excellent way to contribute to the transformation.  During my 40-year career as an atmospheric chemist specializing in assessments that bring science to support appropriate decision making related to energy and the environment, I have come to deeply appreciate the need for this transformation. I strive to effectively use my expertise in research/analyses, program development, and communications/marketing, along with my commitment to collaborative problem solving, to advance ISES’ work. My professional experience includes leadership positions at University of Texas (PhD Chemistry 1973), National Center for Atmospheric Research, Atmospheric Sciences Research Center at the State University of New York at Albany, Science & Policy Associates, Inc., and RAND.  Ongoing activities include Global Emissions IniAtive (GEIA) coordinator since 1991 and science-based environment/energy advisor to a wide variety of public and private, and stakeholder consortium clients since 2002 through my company Panorama Pathways.  In addition to being ISES Board Secretary, I also am Co-Chair of American Solar Energy Society Board of Directors (the USA Section of ISES). 

ISES Board Members

Bernhard Weyres-Borchert

ISES Member at Large Representative
Germany

Dr. Frederick Morse

ISES Member at Large Representative
USA

Dr. Morse is the President of Morse Associates, Inc, a renewable energy consulting company... Read more

Dr. Morse is the President of Morse Associates, Inc, a renewable energy consulting company formed in 1989. He is the former Senior Advisor of US Operations for Abengoa Solar, Inc. Dr. Morse was responsible for preparing the proposals for the 280 MW Solana and 280 MW Mojave Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plants and for securing loan guarantees for those two projects. Dr. Morse first became involved in renewable energy issues in the late 1960s when he served as Executive Director of the White House Assessment of Solar Energy as a National Energy Resource. In his work at the US Department of Energy he played a significant role in defining and managing major solar energy R&D programs, including Solar Heating and Cooling, PV and CSP. Dr. Morse was the Chairman of the Western Governors’ Association Solar Task Force and is Chairman of the Utility-Scale Solar Power Division of the US Solar Energy Industries Association. Dr. Morse is a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, received an M.S. in Nuclear Engineering from MIT and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University.

Prof. Roberto Román L.

ISES Member at Large Representative
Chile

Rabindra Kumar Satpathy

ISES Member at Large Representative
India

Rabindra Satpathy specialised in Solar PV Power through his final year project in Electrical... Read more

Rabindra Satpathy specialised in Solar PV Power through his final year project in Electrical Engineering. He has been working in Solar PV Industry since 1984. He has worked with world leading solar PV companies such as BP Solar India, Siemens Solar, Shell Solar, Solar World , RIL Solar Group, TRINA Solar in various functions i.e. System design & Engineering, Quality, Project Management, Sales & Business Development and leadership roles. He is currently Chief Executive Officer- Renewable Power of Emami Power in India. 

Prof. Aldo Steinfeld

ISES Member at Large Representative
Switzerland

Aldo Steinfeld (PhD University of Minnesota, 1989) is Professor at the Dept. of Mechanical and... Read more

Aldo Steinfeld (PhD University of Minnesota, 1989) is Professor at the Dept. of Mechanical and Process Engineering of ETH Zurich, where he holds the Chair of Renewable Energy Carriers (www.pre.ethz.ch). From 1995-2014, he directed the Solar Technology Laboratory at the Paul Scherrer Institute. At ETH Zurich, he served as the Head of the Institute of Energy Technology from 2005–2007 and Associate Head of the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering from 2007–2009.

He served as the Editor of the Journal of Solar Energy Engineering (2005–2009), co-Editor of the CRC Handbook of Hydrogen Energy (2014), and is currently serving in several editorial boards. He has authored more than 300 papers in refereed journals, filed 28 patents, and supervised 38 PhD theses. His contributions to science and education have been recognized with the ASME Rice Award (2006), the Yellott Award (2008), the European Research Council Advanced Grant (2012), the ISES Farrington Daniels Award (2013), the ASME Heat Transfer Memorial Award (2013), and the ASME Kreith Energy Award (2016). Prof. Steinfeld is member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences.

Prof. Elias Stefanakos

ISES Corporate Members Representative
USA

Anna Leidreiter

ISES Member at Large Representative
Germany

As Senior Programme Manager for Climate Energy, she carries out policy research and develops... Read more

As Senior Programme Manager for Climate Energy, she carries out policy research and develops advocacy campaigns with the climate energy team. In her main capacity Anna works on enabling policy frameworks for a global energy transition towards 100% renewable energies and is the campaign coordinator for Global 100% RE Campaign. Besides that, Anna is a founding member of an energy cooperative in the North of Germany where she coordinates the media and communication work. Before joining the WFC, Anna gained practical experiences in the renewable energy industry. Working for a photovoltaic company, she implemented community owned solar systems in the North of Germany. Further, Anna has worked at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA Hamburg) on the topic of climate change and resource management in Africa. Writing her thesis on „Community Participation in Natural Resource Management”, Anna carried out her fieldwork in rural Ethiopia. She authored and co-authored various articles and publications on climate change and renewable energy subjects and speaks frequently on international conferences. Connect with Anna on Twitter @AnnaLeidreiter or LinkedIn.

Steven Meyers

ISES Young ISES Representative
USA

Steven Meyers is a researcher and PhD student within the Department of Solar and Systems... Read more

Steven Meyers is a researcher and PhD student within the Department of Solar and Systems Engineering at the University of Kassel in Germany, made possible through SHINE, a scholarship program funded by the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions). Before this position, he served as a solar engineer at Saudi Aramco and earned his M.S. in mechanical engineering at the Masdar Institute in Abu Dhabi.

Steven has dedicated his professional life towards the research, development, and deployment of solar thermal projects.  He is currently researching the integration of solar and renewable heat systems for industrial processes to minimize fossil fuel use and carbon emissions. This work complements his other professional goal to realize solar heat projects, contributing towards to the carbon reduction targets for climate change mitigation.

For his efforts, Steven has been recognized in Forbes “30 under 30” list in 2012 and as a St. Gallen Leader of Tomorrow in 2010 and 2012. 

Dr. Alex Zahnd

ISES Member at Large Representative
USA / Nepal

My Masters and PhD in Renewable Energy (Thesis: “The Role of Renewable Energy Technology in... Read more

My Masters and PhD in Renewable Energy (Thesis: “The Role of Renewable Energy Technology in Holistic Community Development”), have been contributory to the successful implementation of context-related, holistic community development (HCD) solutions through the not-for profit NGOs RIDS-Nepal and RIDS-Switzerland in more than twenty villages in the remote high-altitude Nepal Himalayan communities since 1996.  These applied development solution brought significant improvements in regard to improved overall living conditions through newly developed, contextualized (renewable) technologies and infrastructures such as toilets, smokeless stoves, basic indoor lighting, access to clean drinking water, greenhouses, solar driers, etc., alongside educational programs in non-formal education, mal-nutrition and income generation.

Based on the engagement and commitment in applied HCD in partnership with remote Nepalese villages and my involvement in academic education of engineers in Nepal, I was elected as a member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences (SATW) in 2007. 

Dr. Kemal Gani Bayraktar

ISES Member at Large Representative
Turkey

Dr. Kemal Gani Bayraktar is Technical Marketing Manager of Izocam, with a mechanical... Read more

Dr. Kemal Gani Bayraktar is Technical Marketing Manager of Izocam, with a mechanical engineering background in the field of energy. His interests are mainly focused on energy, renewables, insulation and construction technologies, policy, environment and climate change, low carbon economy, innovation, sustainability, clustering and vocational training. He is actively participating to regulatory works and working in NGOs. He represents Solar Energy industry as the President of Turkish Solar Energy Society and HVAC industry as the General Secretary of Turkish Society of HVAC & Sanitary Engineers, TTMD. He is also representing Republic of Turkey as ExCo Member in the IEA Solar Heating Cooling Program. 

Dr. Elimar Frank

ISES Member at Large Representative
Switerzland

Dr. Andreas Häberle

ISES Member at Large Representative
Germany