The U.S. Clean Energy Education & Empowerment (C3E) program has honored Sarah Kurtz and Suzanne Tegen of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) for their leadership and achievement in the field of renewable energy.
The C3E program, led by the DOE in collaboration with the Stanford Precourt Institute for Energy and the MIT Energy Initiative, presented the C3E Awards at the fifth annual C3E Women in Clean Energy Symposium at Stanford University on May 31.
According to NREL, the C3E Awards recognize women for leadership and achievement in driving clean energy progress in various sectors, supporting career advancement and encouraging women of all ages to contribute to the clean energy field.
Kurtz is a research fellow with the National Center for Photovoltaics and a principal scientist at NREL. She also received the Lifetime Achievement award – which is presented by C3E once a year – for her continuing contributions to knowledge about photovoltaics.
According to NREL, Kurtz’s work helped illuminate how to grow high-quality cells, how to measure multi-junction cells, and how their performance is affected under various spectra. Kurtz was previously awarded the prestigious Cherry Award by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and shared the Dan David Prize in 2007.
Tegen manages NREL’s wind and water deployment section, completing in-depth analyses into the economic impacts of generating energy via wind and water projects. She also co-authored the first-ever published report into the employment makeup of the U.S. wind industry, which emphasized the need for colleges and universities to increase the number of wind energy training programs to ensure a workforce for the future.
Tegen previously worked for the Center for Resource Solutions and the U.S. Antarctic Program at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole and McMurdo stations. She also is a founding board member of Women of Wind Energy.
