Baldur
Eliasson
Curriculum Vitae
Baldur
Eliasson
was born in
Iceland
in 1937. He studied electrical engineering and
astronomy at the Federal Institute of Technology in
Zurich
from 1958-1966. He did his doctoral thesis in
the departments of electrical engineering and numerical mathematics at the same
university on a theoretical subject regarding propagation of microwaves. From
1966 to 1969 he worked as a radio astronomer at the California Institute of
Technology in
Pasadena where he
investigated the emissions of radio waves from molecular clouds within our
galaxy.
Baldur returned to Switzerland during the
second half of 1969, started to work in the newly founded Brown Boveri Research
Center on theoretical subjects in physics, optics, laser theory, holography,
scattering, electrical discharges and environmental technologies.
When Asea of Sweden and Brown Boveri of
Switzerland merged in 1988 to form ABB,
Baldur
Eliasson
was asked to follow the global environmental
issues, first part time and then full time starting in 1991. He was in charge of
ABB’s Energy and Global Change Program worldwide, reporting directly to the
ABB’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO). The Energy and Global Change program
followed all aspects of the Global Change issue, i.e. not only energy technology
developments but also the political, scientific and economic aspects.
He represented ABB in a number of international programs in this area, such as
the China Energy Technology Program together with the
Alliance
for Global Sustainability and the International
Energy Agency’s “R&D Program on Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Technologies” of which
he was vice chairman from November 1995 until November 2002.
Baldur
Eliasson
is a guest professor at the Chemical
Engineering Department of Tianjin University in
Tianjin
,
China
. Baldur was co-director of two separate Greenhouse Gas Chemistry Laboratories that ABB ran jointly with
Tsinghua
University
and
Tianjin
University
in
China
. He was a member of the Steering Committee of
an International Project on Ocean Sequestration of CO2 in
Hawaii
and
Norway
. He was a member of the Board of Directors of
the European Climate Forum from 2000-2005.
Baldur
Eliasson
was a member of the Review Panel of the US
Department of Energy’s Program on Climate Technologies from 2000-2005. He was
also a member of the Review Panel of the Swiss National Foundation’s Climate
Program from 2001 to 2004. Furthermore he is a member of the G8 Advisory Board
on Renewable Technologies. Baldur represented
Switzerland
as one of the Review
Editors of the newly published "IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change)
Special Report on CO2 Capture and Storage”.
In June 2001 Baldur was awarded a Special ABB
Award for “Outstanding Contributions to Environmental Affairs”.
In September 2001 the Government of the City of
Tianjin
in
China
, a city with 12 million inhabitants, awarded
the 3rd Hai He Medal to Baldur. This is the highest honor award given by the
city to a foreigner.
In October 2001 Baldur was given the Climate Technology Award by the
International Energy Agency in
Paris
for “Excellence in Leadership” for introducing
climate technologies in developing countries. This award was handed over at a
Special Ceremony held during the United Nations’ 7th Conference of
the Parties (COP-7) in Marrakech in
Morocco
in November 2001.
Baldur Eliasson
has published more than 200 scientific papers
and he is a member of a number of international scientific societies.
On October 31st, 2002
Baldur retired officially from ABB. He now has
his own consultancy company, “Eliasson & Associates”.
Baldur is married and a Swiss-Icelandic
citizen. His wife is a Swiss-American citizen and they have two daughters.
June 2006
Home Address:
Chilemattweg 5,
5413 Birmenstorf
Switzerland
Tel: +41-56-210 14 60
Fax: +41-56-210 14 65
Mobile +41-79-210 14 68
Email:
baldur.eliasson@eliasson.ch