Solar Energy Fuels Discovery
Yogi Goswami
John and Naida Ramil Professor, College of Engineering
Chemical Engineering Department
Yogi Goswami believes that the answer to the looming energy crisis is right before our eyes — and directly above our heads.
“We simply don’t have a choice anymore,” he says. “In the future, we will have to start depending more on solar and other forms of renewable energy.”
It was after the first oil embargo that Goswami, co-director of USF’s Clean Energy Research Center, first became interested in the sun as the most promising source of future energy. Today, he is an internationally recognized expert on energy issues, advising world leaders on the depth and immediacy of this global issue. At a recent International Solar Energy Society World Congress in Beijing, China where he delivered the opening plenary lecture, Goswami received the society’s highest award for his contributions to the field of solar energy. He has published numerous books on energy conversion, efficiency and advances in solar energy.
Goswami’s insatiable curiosity about how to better harness and use solar power has led him and fellow USF scientists toward unique discoveries and innovations. For example, there’s one invention that uses light to disinfect the air. And then there’s an innovation that could make a significant difference in the ability to utilize solar energy more efficiently — a new thermodynamic cycle to produce electric power to both cool and heat the air.
“My number one goal is to continue to work to improve the efficiency of energy conversion from renewable resources and to continue to reduce costs,” he says. “At the same time, I want to inspire the future generation — the students who come to USF — to see what is important to the future and to encourage them to keep working hard at it.
“I’m proud to be at USF working with other researchers with long-established reputations for excellence in the field of solar energy.”
-- Mary Beth Erskine, University Communications & Marketing