Chetan Singh Solanki

Dr. Chetan Singh Solanki is currently Professor in Department of Energy Science and Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB), India. He is an expert solar cell technologies and systems. He received his Ph.D. degree from the specialist silicon laboratory, IMEC, Ketholik University, Leuven, Belgium. Dr. Solanki comes from a small village, where even today no buses goes to village. The village has primary school with just two classrooms. Ever since from engineering studies, he has been working towards developing technological solutions for rural areas for enhancing education and local economy. He won an EMRS (European Material Research Society) young scientist award in 2003 and IIT Bombay Young Investigator Award in 2009. He has also been awarded at several international conferences for research papers. He has authored several books in the area of solar and renewable energy, one of them is on solar PV which is titled as “Solar Photovoltaics: Fundamentals, Technologies and Applications”. One other book in renewable energy area is titled as “Renewable Energy Technologies: a practical guide for beginners (Hindi version) got first prize from Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Govt. of India. He is principal investigator of two large projects running in IIT Bombay, the National Center for Photovoltaic Research and Education, NCPRE (www.ncpre.iitb.ac.in) and a project for providing solar study lamps to 1 Million students (www.millionsoul.iitb.ac.in). He has published over 100 research papers in international journals and conferences on solar photovoltaic and has several patents to his credit. At social front as well Dr. Solanki has taken several initiatives. He is founder member and Chairman of Education Park (An Effort for Providing High Quality, Affordable Education & Training in Rural India. For more detail click on www.edupark.org). During his doctoral study he has founded ROSE (Rose an Organization for Supporting Education). The ROSE is registered in Belgium and working for the cause of education in rural India. For details visit http://www.ese.iitb.ac.in/~chetan/index.htm