Speakers

Prof. Dr. Lim Boon Han

Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia

BIO: Dr Lim Boon Han is an Associate Professor at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia. He obtained his Bachelor of Electrical Engineering and PhD in optical engineering from the University Technology of Malaysia. His PhD was related to the reflectivity measurement of solar reflective materials using laser optics. During the training, he also gained some experience setting up the optical, control and mechanical systems of a gravitational wave detector. After his PhD study, his research crossed over concentrated solar thermal energy, sun-trackers, and photovoltaics (PV).

He worked in China for 10 years, in both academic and industry. Initially, he continued the research of solar furnaces using non-imaging focusing heliostat (NIFH) with the spinning-elevation tracking mechanism at the University of Science and Technology of China. Later, he continued the research at a spin-off company where he led teams to a) build the early batch of government-subsidized solar power demo plants in China, b) invent and mass-produce the world's largest dual-axis sun-tracker, which the diameter is 35 m, c) improve and mass-produce high-temperature NIFH solar furnace to purify metallurgical silicon into solar-grade silicon feedstock. The solar furnace project was awarded the "China Top Ten Science and Technology Progress Awards 2009" by both the Chinese Academy of Science and the Chinese Academy of Engineering. After 2011, he focused on designing and improving the performance of PV power plants. In 2014, he returned to Malaysia, and now he focuses on high-resolution solar irradiance and its applications to optimize PV power plants design in the tropics.

In professional organizations involvement, he was an active member (2015 – 2020) of the Global Young Academy (GYA), the Malaysia representative to the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standards, TC82-WG3 (PV system), the honorary member of Malaysia Photovoltaic Industry Association (MPiA) and a working group committee on photovoltaic standards of Department of Standards Malaysia.

Prof. Dr. Omid Mahian

Ningbo University, China

BIO: Omid Mahian is working as a Professor at Ningbo University, China. He is also a visiting professor of Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London. Currently, he is a member of the Editorial Board of Energy (Elsevier) and Renewable Energy (Elsevier) journals, a senior associate editor of Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry (Springer) and an associate editor in Alexandria Engineering Journal (Elsevier) & J. Thermal Science (Springer). He has been a reviewer for more than and 100 international journals. His research direction mainly includes the application of nanotechnology in renewable energy (such as nanofluids application in solar collector and solar desalination) and entropy generation and exergy analysis in energy systems. So far, he has published more than 200 SCI papers. He has papers in top journals including Progress in Energy and Combustion Science, Physics Reports and Nano Energy. He has been selected as a highly cited researcher for three consecutive years (2018, 2019 and 2020) by Web of Science. He has received several international awards from conferences and innovation exhibitions for his contribution in the field of heat transfer and renewable energy.