Officer Of The Order of Australia Award For Andrew William Blakers

Australian National University (ANU) Professor Andrew William Blakers has been named among those appointed as the Officer Of The Order of Australia. This award recognizes people for their distinguished service of a high degree to Australia or to the humanity at large.

Blakers has been recognized for his remarkable service to science in the field of solar cell development and also for being an advocate for energy storage and renewable technologies. This award was specially for the role he played in the team that invented the passivated emitter and rear cell silicon solar cell technology, both of which are being extensively used in most solar panels today.

No stranger to awards, Blakers was the winner of the Clunies Ross Technology Innovation Award in 2024, and was also the joint winner of the top global engineering Queen Elizabeth Prize in 2023 for PERC solar cell technology.

Founder of the Solar Cell Research Group at ANU in 1991, Blakers was also the Foundation Director of the Australian Research Council Centre for Solar Energy Systems from 2003-2011. Among other positions, he is currently the Chair, International Advisory Panel, Solar Energy at the Research Institute of Singapore.

Talking about the award, local media Riotact said that Blakers was pleasantly surprised at receiving this honor. He felt that the solar industry has grown from almost nothing to dominate new energy production, and it was very gratifying to be part of that path.