Aldo Steinfeld (PhD University of Minnesota, 1989) is a full professor at the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering at ETH Zurich, where he holds the professorship for renewable energy sources. From 2004-2014, he headed the Solar Engineering Laboratory at the Paul Scherrer Institute. At ETH, he was head of the Institute of Energy Technology (2005-2007) and deputy head of research of the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering (2007-2009). He was a member of the Board of Directors of the International Solar Energy Society (2015-2019). His contributions to science and education have been recognized with the ASME Rice Award (2006), the Yellott Award (2008), the European Research Council Advanced Grant (2012), the ISES Farrington Daniels Award (2013), the Heat Transfer Memorial Award (2013), and the ASME Kreith Energy Award (2016). His research has spawned two spin-offs: Climeworks commercializes technology to capture CO2 from the air, and Synhelion commercializes technology to produce solar fuels. Prof. Steinfeld is a member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences. Developing technologies to produce carbon-neutral transportation fuels has become a global energy challenge, especially for long-haul air travel. One promising solution is to use concentrated solar energy to produce drop-in fuels from H2O and CO2 – synthetic alternatives to petroleum-derived liquid hydrocarbons such as kerosene and gasoline that are compatible with the world’s existing infrastructure for fuel distribution, storage, and use.

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