Testimonial to T. Nejat Veziroğlu on his Retirement

from the University of Miami, 15 May 2009:

IN APPRECIATION

T. Nejat Veziroğlu

In his 47 years of service in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, T. Nejat Veziroğlu has led efforts at the University of Miami to develop clean, renewable energy alternatives to fossil fuels. From instituting the University’s first Ph.D. program in engineering to founding the Clean Energy Research Institute and serving as its Director for the last 36 years, he has spearheaded important research at the University and internationally regarding the viability of a global energy economy based on hydrogen.

He is the Founding President of the International Association for Hydrogen Energy and the Editor-in-Chief of the bimonthly journal, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy.

Professor Veziroğlu’s most memorable career achievement is the Hydrogen Economy Miami Energy (THEME) Conference, the world’s first major conference on hydrogen energy, which he organized in 1974 and proposed the Hydrogen Energy System. He has since initiated several other prestigious energy conferences, including the World Hydrogen Energy Conferences and the World Hydrogen Technologies Conventions.

He has authored more than 350 papers and scientific reports, edited more than 160 volumes of books and proceedings, and coauthored the book Solar Hydrogen Energy: The Power to Save the Earth.

Nominated for Nobel Prize in Economics in 2000, he is a member of some 20 professional organizations and recipient of several honorary doctorates and prestigious international awards. He was selected to the Argentinean Academy of Sciences and he has received the Turkish Presidential Service Award, the I. V. Kurchatov Medal by the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy of Russia, and the Energy for Mankind Award by the Global Energy Society.

Professor Veziroğlu, thank you for your distinguished service to the University of Miami and to the global scientific community.

Donna E. Shalala

President

University of Miami

Coral Gables, Florida, USA