For his outstanding research on energy and sustainability, Prof. Joey Ocon, was given the Green Talents Award by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) last 2015. Under the auspices of the BMBF Minister Prof. Johanna Wanka, Prof. Ocon was the first Filipino to receive such award since its launch, and was among the 25 young scientists chosen out of the almost thousand who applied for the award.
Launched in 2009, the Green Talents Award is an initiative of the BMBF. It is awarded annually to 25 young scientists around the world to encourage the conception of global and creative ideas to solve the world’s most pressing problems in energy and the environment. The program aims to strengthen R&D cooperation among nations in the field of sustainable development.
Along with other Green Talents awardees, Prof. Ocon is granted visits to Germany’s leading research institutions on sustainability development. Individual expert meetings also take place to promote exchange of ideas and research collaboration. Prof. Ocon is scheduled to meet with the director of the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society and two professors from the University of Stuttgart and Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin.
Prof. Ocon received the Outstanding Young Scientists award of the DOST’s National Academy of Science and Technology last 2015 for his exemplary performance in electrochemical engineering research at a young age of 29.