On the occasion of the 18th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, taking
place in Lyon, France, the Johannes Linneborn Prize for achievements in biomass
development was awarded to Kyriakos Maniatis, Principal Administrator,
Directorate General for Energy, European Commission.
Kyriakos Maniatis graduated
with a BSc. from University College London (1977) and obtained a PhD in Chemical
Engineering from the University of Aston in Birmingham (1987). Over the last 20
years, he has managed the Bioenergy demonstration part of the European
Commission Framework Programmes and has been responsible for all technical
issues related to 1st and 2nd generation biofuels at DG Energy. Kyriakos
Maniatis is also responsible for the DG Energy demonstration component of the
sectors of biofuels and polygeneration in the Commission's 7th Framework
Programme. Moreover, he contributes a lot to the legislative actions of the
EC.
During his career, he also
initiated the CEN standardisation work for solid biomass fuels, solid recovered
fuels, bioethanol, biodiesel and biomethane. He led the EU team to the
tripartite work on International Compatible Biofuels Standards with the US and
Brazil that issued the White Paper on this subject in 2008. Kyriakos Maniatis
has represented the European Commission in the Executive Committee of the
International Energy Agency (IEA) - Bioenergy Implementing Agreement for the
last 15 years and served as a highly appreciated ExCo Chairman in 2002, 2005,
2006 and 2007.
“I am very honoured for the
Linneborn Prize nomination and I wish to take the opportunity to express my
sincere thanks to the Bioenergy Community for the nomination and to extend my
warm greetings to the participants of the 18th European Biomass Conference and
Exhibition. Being the nominee of the Linneborn Award is a great challenge for me
personally because of the essential moral requirement to continue contributing
to our common Bioenergy goals as all previous nominees of the prestigious
Linneborn Award have done, and have excelled in”, says Kyriakos
Maniatis.
The 18th European Biomass
Conference is delighted to honour such an outstanding personality in biomass
development for his leadership in promoting biomass as a sustainable energy
source within the European Union and worldwide for more than 20
years.
Background “The
Johannes Linneborn Prize”
The Johannes Linneborn Prize was
established in 1994 for outstanding contributions to the development of energy
from Biomass. Johannes Linneborn, lived from 1899 to 1991 and was a pioneer in
modern Biomass utilisation. In his professional life of almost 70 years, his
interests covered a wide range of activities from agriculture, energy and
transport to health and nutrition. His credo was the necessity to integrate all
human activities into the natural cycle of life. The Linneborn Prize is awarded
at the European Biomass Conference and Exhibition series (www.biomass-conference.com).
Event
Background
For 30 years now, the European Biomass
Conference and Exhibition has combined a very renowned international Scientific
Conference with an Industry Exhibition. Since 2007 the Conference and Exhibition
takes place every year. The European Biomass Conference and Exhibition is held
at different venues throughout Europe and ranks on top of world's leading events
in the biomass sector.
This year's European Biomass Conference and
Exhibition will be held in Lyon, France. The Conference is expected to attract
about 1,500 participants from more than 70 countries. It is supported by the
European Commission, by ADEME - the French Environment and Energy Management
Agency, UNESCO - United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization - Natural Sciences Sector, WCRE - the World Council for Renewable
Energy, and EUBIA - the European Biomass Industry
Association.