Ecology Award from the Viktor & Sigrid Dulger Foundation

Innovative solution for sustainable construction honoured

The Viktor & Sigrid Dulger Foundation has once again awarded its prestigious Ecology Prize this year. The award, endowed with 10,000 euros, went to Dr Gan Huang from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), who is setting new standards for energy-efficient construction with an innovative material development.

Large glass façades are increasingly characterising the image of modern architecture - they bring light into the building interior, but also pose ecological challenges: high heat generation, limited privacy and increased cleaning effort. Dr Huang, conductor of the Hybrid Solar Technologies Lab at KIT and Principal Investigator of the Helmholtz Investigator Group, has developed a novel, polymer-based metamaterial that meets these challenges.

Its transparent material protects against glare, repels water and dirt and remains remarkably cool - on average up to six degrees Celsius below ambient temperature. These properties make it a potential key building block for energy-efficient construction in the future.

The Viktor & Sigrid Dulger Foundation, established by ProMinent's founder, honours outstanding scientific work in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering that deals with environmental problems and their solutions with the Ecology Prize every year. Dr Huang's work exemplifies the interdisciplinary and forward-looking nature of this award.

Image:Andreas Zühlcke (left) as representative of the Viktor & Sigrid Dulger Foundation with the ecology prize winner Dr Gan Huang (right) from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) (Image: Heidelberg Academy of Sciences/Tobias Schwerdt).