Professor Thorsteinn I. Sigfusson (; 4 June 1954 in

Vestmannaeyjar Vestmannaeyjar (, sometimes anglicized as Westman Islands) is a municipality and archipelago off the south coast of Iceland. The largest island, Heimaey, has a population of 4,414, most of whom live in the archipelago's main town, Vestmannaeyja ...

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

– 15 July 2019) was an Icelandic physicist prominent in the field of energy research. He was awarded the

Global Energy Prize The Global Energy Prize is an international award in the field of energy industry which is given for ''"outstanding scientific research and scientific-technical developments in the field of energy which promote greater efficiency and environmental ...

in 2007, and was the Director of the Innovation Center Iceland at the University of Iceland, where he held the Icelandic Alloys Chair.

Education and professional work

After studying at Hamrahlid College in

Reykjavík Reykjavík is the Capital city, capital and largest city in Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland on the southern shore of Faxaflói, the Faxaflói Bay. With a latitude of 64°08′ N, the city is List of northernmost items, the worl ...

, Thorsteinn graduated from the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen (, KU) is a public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in Scandinavia, after Uppsala University. ...

in 1978 with a degree in Physics. He earned his PhD in 1983 at

Darwin College, Cambridge Darwin College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded on 28 July 1964, Darwin was Cambridge University's first graduate-only college, and also the first to admit both men and wo ...

under supervision of Prof Gilbert Lonzarich, FRS. Thorsteinn worked as a Professor of Physics in The Science Institute at the

University of Iceland The University of Iceland ( ) is a public research university in Reykjavík, Iceland, and the country's oldest and largest institution of higher education. Founded in 1911, it has grown steadily from a small civil servants' school to a modern co ...

, and served as Chairman of The Board of Science Institute (1986–90), University Library (1994), The Research Council of Iceland (1996–99), and the Technical Committee of RANNIS. He also acted as Director of The Engineering Institute and Dean of Faculty of the Renewable Energy School in

Akureyri Akureyri (, ) is a town in northern Iceland, the country's fifth most populous Municipalities of Iceland, municipality (under the official name of Akureyrarbær , 'town of Akureyri') and the largest outside the Capital Region (Iceland), Capital R ...

. In 2003–07, he was Co-Chair of The International Partnership for the Hydrogen Economy, and in 2006 he created and chaired the Renewable Energy Prize Ceremony, first awarded by the World Renewable Energy Council during its world conference in Florence. The companies and institutions he founded include: * Eco Energy Iceland, the holding company behind the ECTOS projects and related renewable energy projects *

Icelandic New Energy Icelandic New Energy Ltd (''Íslensk NýOrka ehf'') is a company founded in 1999 following a decision in 1998 by the Alþing, Icelandic Parliament to convert vehicles and fishing fleets to hydrogen produced from renewable energy by 2050. Icela ...

, owned by the Icelandic energy sector as well as Daimler, Shell and Hydro, responsible for the introduction of hydrogen energy to Icelandic society * Varmaraf, a company specializing in thermoelectrics for green electricity production and a novel electrolysis of water * CRI. A company producing green methanol from geothermal CO₂ and electrolytic hydrogen * HBT, A company producing electric filter devices for correcting the electric performance of diesel generators and saving oil for ships * RES, The Renewable Energy School in Akureyri, where an international masters level education is provided. Prof. Sigfusson co-led the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell faculty

Awards and decorations

* British Council Fellowship, 1979 * Clerk-Maxwell award fellowship 1980 for the development of a new technique in magnetism research * Elected Research Fellow, Darwin College, 1981 * Knighthood by the President of Iceland, January 1, 2004 * Laureate of the International

, St. Petersburg, 2007Thorsteinn I. Sigfusson's profile
at the

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sigfusson, Thorsteinn I. 1954 births 2019 deaths 20th-century physicists 21st-century physicists Thorsteinn Ingi Sigfússon Thorsteinn Ingi Sigfússon University of Copenhagen alumni Alumni of Darwin College, Cambridge Thorsteinn Ingi Sigfússon Thorsteinn Ingi Sigfússon Thorsteinn Ingi Sigfússon