Aaswath P. Raman, University of California, Los Angeles, will receive the inaugural Materials Research Society (MRS) Nelson “Buck” Robinson Science and Technology Award for Renewable Energy, which recognizes a student, postdoc, or other early-career professional through five years following the highest degree attained, for the development of novel sustainable solutions for the realization of renewable sources of energy. Raman is an assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the co-founder and chief scientific officer of SkyCool Systems, a startup commercializing radiative sky cooling technology based on research that he originated. He previously was an assistant professor of electrical and systems engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, and was a research associate and postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University.

Raman’s research spans metamaterials and nanophotonics to heat transfer, energy systems, and computational methods, with a particular focus on enabling new energy technologies. He received his PhD degree in applied physics from Stanford University. He is the recipient of the Sir James Lougheed Award of Distinction from the Government of Alberta, Canada, the SPIE Green Photonics Award for his work on solar-cell research, and the Stanford Postdoctoral Research Award. In recognition of his breakthroughs in developing radiative sky cooling, in 2015, Raman was named one of MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35 (TR35) as an Energy Pioneer.

MRS acknowledges the generosity of Sophie Robinson for endowing this award in memory of her father, Nelson “Buck” Robinson.