U.S. senator Dick Durbin Highlights Dr. Siva Sivananthan’s contributions to America
Wednesday, 25 March 2015
2015 noting the importance of federal funding for research, Senior U.S. Senator from Illinois Dick Durbin (Assistant Democratic Leader in the Senate) highlighted Dr. Siva Sivananthan’s contributions to American technological innovation.
Senator Durbin discussed Dr. Sivananthan’s achievements and the impact of the technology he pioneered for night vision sensors that protect the U.S. military and solar cells that provide renewable energy. Senator Durbin also talked about Dr. Sivananthan’s background as a Sri Lankan immigrant, exemplifying the valuable contributions of immigrant innovators.
“In addition to teaching and mentoring young scientists, Dr. Siva has founded and runs a number of companies that are working to commercialize his discoveries,” said Senator Durbin as he explained how Dr. Sivananthan expanded his technology research and development as an entrepreneur, bridging the gap between academia and industry.
Sivananthan Laboratories, Inc. is the high-tech business incubator founded by Dr. Sivananthan, which is focused on promoting economic growth in Illinois, the United States and around the world through fostering cutting-edge, fundamental research and development. One of Dr. Sivananthan’s companies, EPIR Technologies, Inc., provides advanced infrared materials and sensors for military and commercial applications. EPIR has successfully commercialized infrared material for high performance night vision cameras, and also low-cost sensors for commercial machine vision applications.
Dr. Sivananthan’s work in creating photovoltaic technology for night vision sensors served as the platform for groundbreaking next generation solar cells, which is being commercialized through Episolar, Inc. In addition, he helped found InSPIRE (the Institute for Solar Photovoltaic Innovation, Research, and Edu-training), a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote research, development, workforce training and technology commercialization in the solar energy industry.
Referring to this non-profit, Senator Durbin said, “InSPIRE brings together physics students from UIC and veterans from the war in Iraq and Afghanistan to teach high school kids on the South Side about solar energy and how to make ultra light cell phone chargers.”
Dr. Sivananthan is also committed to giving back to his home country of Sri Lanka. His vision is to help Sri Lanka become a global hub for renewable energy. He has developed and sponsored initiatives to support Sri Lankan universities with training and educating scientists, engineers and technicians in solar photovoltaic technology. Dr. Sivananthan’s goal is to cultivate economic development through creating a workforce for solar power generation.
The 4th annual Sri Lanka Solar Workshop sponsored by Sivananthan Laboratories was held at the University of Peradeniya in February 2015. This year’s workshop was organized by Prof. Buddhika Dassanayake from the University of Peradeniya. The Sri Lankan team that has worked closely with Prof. Sivananthan to organize these Workshops also includes Prof. Lakshman Dissanayake (Emeritus Professor in Physics, University of Peradeniya and Research Professor, Institute of Fundamental Studies), Prof. Punniamoorthy Ravirajan (University of Jaffna), Prof. D.S.M. de Silva (University of Keleniya) and Prof. G.D.K. Mahanama (University of Ruhuna).
The following solar energy experts from Dr. Sivananthan’s US team lectured at the Solar Workshop:
· Dr. Timothy J. Coutts (Fellow Emeritus at National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Adjunct Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago)
· Dr. Ramesh G. Dhere (Adjunct Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Vice President (R&D) at Episolar, Inc.)
· Dr. Timothy A. Gessert (Principal Scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Adjunct Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago)
· Dr. Mowafak Al-Jassim (Principal Scientist and Group Manager at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory)
· Dr. Christopher F. Buurma (Director of Computation and Modeling at EPIR Technologies)
Sivananthan Laboratories also sponsored an island-wide essay contest on renewable energy for Sri Lankan high school students. These initiatives in Sri Lanka, as well as similar programs in Morocco, are part of Dr. Sivananthan’s larger vision to mentor and motivate interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics among underrepresented communities across the world.
During his speech at the event on March 16, 2015, Senator Durbin also mentioned the White House “Champion of Change” award that Dr. Sivananthan received in 2013. “That honor recognizes immigrant entrepreneurs from around the world who make America better, creating jobs and making our nation more competitive,” said Senator Durbin.
At this event Senator Durbin received the "Champion of Science" award from the Science Coalition, a DC-based nonprofit group of major public and private research universities. Senator Durbin emphasized the need to increase federal funding for scientific research to ensure that the United States can be globally competitive in research and development.
