The UNESCO chair on “Renewable and Clean Energy for Sustainable Development” was established in UNESCO Madanjeet School of Green Energy Technologies (UMSGET) at Pondicherry University (2024-2028) to promote green and clean energy technologies. Collaborating with UNESCO, MSF, and SAF-India, the UNESCO Chair firmly commits to providing intellectual knowledge and professional training to promote renewable energy in South Asia and globally for sustainable development. The UNESCO chair is to work with governments, schools, colleges, universities, industries, NGOs, businesses, researchers, technology developers and environmentally conscious individuals working towards the promotion/development of renewable energy technologies for sustainable development.

Prof. R. Arun Prasath holds the established UNESCO Chair as agreed mutually by UNESCO, Paris, and Pondicherry University with the financial support of MSF/SAF-India for four years, 2024-2028.  Professor R. Arun Prasath brings vast international exposure (Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia, Belgium, and the USA) as a researcher. He received several prestigious awards like the DAAD, BOF, and RAMAN Fellowships. His early international exposure was at the Max-Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Mainz, GERMANY (1999-2001). He worked as a researcher in several prestigious institutes, as a research associate at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, INDIA (2002-2004), a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UNITED KINGDOM (2004-2006) and at University of New South Wales, Sydney, AUSTRALIA (2006-2008), and as a senior researcher in Ghent University (2008-2010), BELGIUM with BOF fellowship and received the prestigious RAMAN fellowship to work at University of Wyoming, USA in the year 2014-15. He leads a research group on energy materials/device fabrication for conversion and storage. He has more than 23 years of teaching and research activity, including industrial research. He has authored over 60 peer-reviewed journal articles, proceedings, and book chapters and is a co-inventor in 3 International patents and 2 European patent applications to his credit. He has presented over 80 oral presentations at various conferences, seminars, workshops, and other events, mainly on research progress and outreach to promote renewable energy technologies.

Professor. R. Arun Prasath is also actively involved in the outreach and promotion of renewable energy technologies and sustainable development practices at Pondicherry University. His achievements include the detailed project report on the “Solar Campus Master Plan” for the Pondicherry University-Main Campus, Invest in Our Planet Earth, Sustainable Campus Campaigns, Green Campus Auditing, Sustainability@PU, and Net-zero Pondicherry University. His team’s project proposal on Pondicherry University for a “Solar Campus” in 2012 has contributed to promoting Solar Energy Generation in the campus with a current installed capacity of ~3 MWp in 2021, making Pondicherry University one of the largest affordable and clean energy generation in an educational institution in India. He also served as chairman of the green audit for Pondicherry University campus and as a member of QS Sustainability Ranking and Times Higher Education World University Rankings for the campus to the SDGs-7 goal of “Affordable and Clean Energy.” In addition, he is a member of several university administration activities that promote sustainable practices. Under his leadership, the UNESCO chair aims to promote greener and cleaner energy technologies, energy security, and sustainable development. The UNESCO chair advocates for a rapid and massive transformation toward greener and cleaner energy generation via solar, wind, hydro, ocean, wave, waste-to-energy, geothermal power, hydrogen energy, and the development of efficient technologies like fuel cells, hydrogen, electrolysers, electrical mobility, more efficient energy storage systems, carbon capture, utilization, and storage technologies, green building and, green chemical technologies, etc. to address the global climate change issues for the promotion of sustainability in energy generation and use.

The official inaugural function of the UNESCO Chair on “Renewable and Clean Energy for Sustainable Development” was held on 10th December 2024. The Chair Establishment Report is attached here.

Coverage of UNESCO Chair inauguration on 10th Dec 2024

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc-pSm4NP9A
• https://youtu.be/1InziNQkg3U?si=vl8G4yw2LmxV2PJj
• https://cititimes.com/2024/12/23/unesco-chair-appointed-in-india-at-pondicherry-university/
• https://sites.google.com/pondiuni.ac.in/unesco-chair-inauguration/home
• https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/two-new-unesco-chairs-appointed-bangladesh-and-india

Coverage of the National Conference NCGETS-2025 held on 20-21 March 2025

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKqv3eJ5aCM
• https://youtu.be/edbE2nVAChw?feature=shared
• https://youtu.be/VgzGr3pOaCw?si=EIxA3r9wqOid7Cj8
• https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/puducherry/emphasis-on-transitioning-to-green-and-clean-energy-technologies/article69358101.ece
• https://www.dinamalar.com/news/kalvimalar-news-en/national-conference-on-green-energy-technologies-at-pu/54639
• https://sites.google.com/pondiuni.ac.in/ncgets-2025/

Coverage of the National Conference NCGETS 2024, held on 21-22 March 2024

• https://www.pondiuni.edu.in/department/unesco-chair-on-renewable-and-clean-energy-for-sustainable-development
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrYXJhgyugg
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKqv3eJ5aCM
• https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2016123
• https://sites.google.com/pondiuni.ac.in/ncgets-2024/home

Read more at: