The prestigious American Chemical Society award recognises Professor Islam’s substantial contributions to the fundamental atomistic understanding of new materials for energy storage and conversion devices including lithium batteries and perovskite solar cells.

To celebrate all the 2020 awards recipients, the American Chemical Society held the 84th National Awards Ceremony in April 2021 as a virtual event for the first time, and a fulll video of the ceremony is available to watch.

The development of low carbon energy technologies is among the most urgent challenges of our time in order to reduce carbon emissions that contribute to climate change and to deal with the emerging issue of air pollution.

It is now clear that the next generation of energy technologies depends critically on new materials, new approaches and greater understanding. Professor Islam uses powerful computer modelling techniques to help understand and develop new materials for solar cells and for lithium batteries in electric cars.

He said: “I am delighted and honoured to receive this award from the American Chemical Society. I would like to acknowledge the fantastic contributions from my research group – past and present; I am also grateful for the fruitful and enjoyable collaborations over the years.”

The Henry H. Storch Award winner in Energy Chemistry is awarded for outstanding contributions to, and advancement of, the field of materials for energy applications. Professor Islam received a certificate, and was invited to present a plenary lecture at a special ‘Energy Materials’ symposium in his name at the online American Chemical Society National Meeting in August 2020.

Professor Islam is also well-known to wider audiences, having presented the 2016 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures for BBC TV on the theme of energy and titled ‘Supercharged: Fuelling the Future’.