Awards
Congratulations to the 2011 Fuel Cell Seminar & Exposition
Award Winners!
The Fuel Cell Seminar & Exposition congratulates
Adrian Corless and Dr. Harumi
Yokokawa - winners of the 2011 Fuel Cell Seminar &
Exposition award. Awards are given annually to those who have
demonstrated significant leadership in promoting the overall
advancement of fuel cell technology.
Recipient Biographies
Adrian Corless
Chief Technology Officer for Plug Power Inc.
Adrian Corless, Chief Technology Officer for Plug Power Inc., is
currently responsible for technology development across the
company's various business units as well as guiding the Company's
Intellectual Property portfolio. Recently, he has led expansion of
Plug Power's GenDrive® product offering, building the
suite from two products to ten since 2008. Engineering design
strategies implemented by Mr. Corless and his team have resulted in
continued improvements in product reliability and cost, leading to
rapid growth in fuel cell sales and deployments.
Mr. Corless began his career in hydrogen fuel cell technology in
1996 when he joined Ballard Power Systems as part of the Fuel Cell
Bus Team. From 1996 to 1999, Mr. Corless led the systems
development of two generations of the fuel cell bus engines and
participated in the earliest commercial deployments of the buses in
both Chicago and Vancouver.
In 1999, Mr. Corless joined Vancouver-based start-up company,
Cellex Power Products, as Chief Technology Officer. As CTO of
Cellex Power, Mr. Corless' primary business objective was to
develop a fuel cell hybrid system as a replacement for lead-acid
batteries in material handling equipment.
Successful product development and customer interest resulted in
the purchase of Cellex Power by Plug Power Inc. in 2007. Mr.
Corless joined Plug Power as Vice President of Product Development
and was promoted to Chief Technology Officer in 2008.
By early 2010, it was hard for Mr. Corless not to take notice of
the ramping commercialization of the fuel cell product, a brand
known as GenDrive. Mr. Corless and his family relocated from
Vancouver, Canada to Albany, New York to operate out of the Plug
Power headquarters.
The GenDrive fuel cell product line that Mr. Corless has led
development from day one is now operating in customer sites across
North America as the sole power source for their electric lift
truck fleets. As of the third quarter of 2011, over 1,300 GenDrive
products are in operations, accumulating over 5 million operating
hours.
Mr. Corless is a Registered Professional Engineer in British
Columbia, Canada, has actively contributed to the development of
both UL and CSA fuel cell standards, and is a member of the
Technical Advisory Board for the NRC Institute for Fuel Cell
Innovation. He holds more than 14 patents related primarily to fuel
cell systems. Mr. Corless holds a Masters of Applied Science
degree in Mechanical Engineering as part of the Institute for
Integrated Energy Systems from the University of Victoria.
When Mr. Corless is not developing emerging fuel cell solutions,
he is fulfilling his love for the outdoors with his cherished wife
and two children.
Read Plug Power's Press Release about the Award
Harumi Yokokawa, Ph. D.
Project Leader of the NEDO project
Dr. Harumi Yokokawa is currently acting as Project Leader of the
NEDO project on the Durability/Reliability of SOFC stacks/systems
in the position of the invited researcher in the energy technology
research institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial
Science and Technology (AIST).
His major interests are materials thermodynamics and its
applications to energy-related materials issues. He is a
member of MALT group who have developed the thermodynamic database
MALT and related software. His current research subject is on
solid oxide fuel cell materials.
Yokokawa received his Doctor degree in nuclear engineering from
the University of Tokyo in 1977 and then joined the National
Chemical Laboratory for Industry (later, National Institute for
Materials and Chemical Research and currently AIST).
On the basis of knowledge on calorimetry, data evaluation and
materials thermodynamics, he has been engaged on energy related
research topics. During thermodynamic analyses on hydrogen
production by thermochemical cycle reactions as well as aluminum
blast furnace, he became familiar with thermodynamic analyses on
energy related processes and materials using his own developing
thermodynamic database and related software.
From late 1980s, he started to investigate the solid oxide fuel
cell materials. First achievements were made on analyses on
the interface stability of Perovskite cathode and YSZ electrolyte
and also on the sintering of LaCrO3-based oxide
interconnects; both are related with cost reduction in fabricating
SOFCs with wet-sintering processes. Since then, he has
continued on the fundamental investigations on the industrial
issues in SOFC materials.
Recently, he has started cooperation projects on durability/
reliability with industrial partners. These activities
provide a basis for the commercialization of the SOFC micro CHP
systems for domestic houses. Although he retired from AIST in
2009, he continues to act as the Project Leader of the NEDO SOFC
Project.
Yokokawa's work on the thermodynamic database and its
utilization in the energy-related fields has been awarded from the
Japan Information Center for Science and Technology (1989), from
the Minister of the Agency for Science and Technology (2001), the
outstanding achievement award from the High temperature materials
division, The Electrochemical Society (2002), Christian Friedrich
Schőnbein Silver Medal from the European Solid Oxide Fuel Cell
Forum (2004), and from the Society of Calorimetry and Thermal
Analysis, Japan(2006). In 2006, he has been elected as the
Fellow of the Electrochemical Society.
Dr. Bernard S. Baker Student Award
Congratulations to the winners of the
2011 Fuel Cell Seminar & Exposition Dr. Bernard S. Baker
Student award. Awards are given to students conducting
exceptional fuel cell research.
First Place: Kui Jiao --
University of Waterloo
Second Place: Tae Ho Shin -- Kyushu
University
Third Place: Drew Higgins --
University of
Waterloo
Honorable Mentions:
Nick Holubowitch -- Tyndall National Institute, University
College Cork
Dustin Banham -- University of
Calgary
Shaun Alia -- University of California,
Riverside
Rainer Kungas -- University of Pennsylvania
Meng Li -- SUNY Stony Brook University
About the Award
The purpose of the award is to encourage and recognize
exceptional students in the field of fuel cell related
technologies. Dr. Baker was a pioneer in the fuel cell industry,
and was himself a recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship as part of
his graduate work in carbonate fuel cells in The Netherlands.
About Dr. Bernard S. Baker
Dr. Bernard S. Baker of Bethel, Connecticut, was a pioneer in
the field of electrochemistry whose career spanned 45 years. He was
a founder and served as president, chief executive officer and
chairman of Energy Research Corporation (now called FuelCell
Energy, Inc., Danbury, Conn.), developer and manufacturer of fuel
cells used to generate electric power. Power plants based on his
concepts are providing electricity in locations throughout the
world.
Dr. Baker was known worldwide as an expert in electrochemical
systems. He directed research in and development of various
electrochemical power generation devices, including different types
of fuel cells, batteries and hybrid systems. Dr. Baker's expertise
encompassed fundamental research as well as the technological,
engineering, system and marketing aspects of these systems.
A vision of clean and quiet electric
power
Most fuel cells require hydrogen to be extracted from the fuel
source (such as natural gas) before it can be used in the fuel
cell. Dr. Baker envisioned a system that bypassed this step,
allowing fuel to be sent directly to the fuel cell. When Baker
started work on these so-called "Direct Fuel Cells" they were no
larger than a silver dollar and generated a few milliwatts. Today,
systems based on his designs are powering commercial and industrial
facilities throughout the world.
A lifetime of fuel cell research, development and
commercialization
Baker received his bachelors and masters degrees in chemical
engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and was a
Post-Graduate Fulbright Fellow at the Laboratory for
Electrochemistry, University of Amsterdam, before earning a
doctorate from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1969. His
doctoral thesis was also on fuel cell heat transfer and internal
reforming.
Before joining Energy Research Corporation, Baker was Director
of Basic Sciences at the Institute of Gas Technology in Chicago,
where he directed research in the area of energy conversion and
fuel cells. Before that, he was Senior Scientist at Lockheed
Aircraft Corporation, Missiles & Space Division, where he was
responsible for research on Carbonate Fuel Cell systems and
electrochemical kinetic studies.
Dr. Baker is a major contributor to the field of fuel cell
research, development and commercialization. He was issued 20 U.S.
patents relating to fuel cells and other electrochemical systems.
He authored more than 100 publications, including technical papers,
books and symposia proceedings on the subject of fuel cells. Dr.
Baker was a well-known expert in fuel cell systems and actively
contributed to many technology developments and breakthroughs in
the field.
In 1999, he received the prestigious Grove Medal, which was
presented in conjunction with the Sixth Grove Fuel Cell Symposium
in London and is awarded to acknowledge an individual or company
that has made valuable contributions toward the development and
success of fuel cell technology.
At the time of the award, the Chairman of the Grove Symposium
Steering Committee said: "Dr. Bernard S. Baker devoted his entire
professional career to develop and promote fuel cells. In the
beginning as a scientist, finally as a top manager he dealt with
various fuel cells including alkaline, phosphoric acid and molten
carbonate technologies. Dr. Baker personifies a remarkable
combination of scientific capabilities and management skills. This
unique blend enabled him not only to have many patents on fuel cell
related inventions and to issue more than 100 fuel cell
publications but to build up one of the world wide leading
companies in the carbonate fuel cell technology."
Dr. Baker received the Cecil J. Previdi Award for
Entrepreneurial Spirit and Business Leadership in 1995. He was
invited as a Ralph E. Peck Lecturer at Illinois Institute of
Technology in 1994.
Biographical information
Bernard Baker was born in Philadelphia on June 26, 1936 and was
the son of the late William Victor Baker and the late Bessie
(Weinstein) Baker. Dr. Baker died on June 21, 2004. The DR. BERNARD
S. BAKER STUDENT AWARD FOR FUEL CELL RESEARCH instituted by the
Fuel Cell Seminar in 2005, to encourage and recognize exceptional
students in the pursuit of fuel cell research, is a living tribute
to the memory of Dr. Baker.
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