Dr Radhika Khosla and Dr Robert Hoye have been awarded the title of Professor through the University of Oxford’s annual Recognition of Distinction Awards.
The awards recognise colleagues who have made significant contributions to research, teaching and leadership. Radhika is now Professor of Environmental Science and Policy, and Robert is Professor of Materials Chemistry.
The ZERO Institute congratulates Radhika and Robert on this superb achievement.
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Professor Khosla’s interdisciplinary research focuses on extreme heat and the rapidly growing global demand for cooling, particularly in the context of cities in the Global South. Her research interrogates how energy use evolves with urbanisation, how we shape the future of global cooling demand mitigation while building resilience to unprecedented extreme heat, and how emerging economies can accelerate equitable energy transitions. She works with the Oxford Martin School as Principal Investigator of the Future of Cooling programme and co-investigator for the Circular Battery Economies programme.
Professor Khosla leads research agendas and international knowledge networks on cooling, urban energy demand, sustainable development, and climate change policy. She has advised on these topics to the United Nations, the UK Parliament and the Smart Surfaces Coalition, among others. She is also Research Director at the Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development.
Professor Khosla is a Fellow of the Energy Institute and Editor-in-Chief of Environmental Research Letters, a leading peer-reviewed journal. She has contributed to several international scientific reports such as the UNEP Emissions Gap Report (2020) and the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report (2022), and won several awards including Honourable Mention for the Bina Agarwal Prize in Ecological Economics (2023).
Her expertise regularly receives international recognition and she has been cited in over 2,500 media articles and broadcasts, including TIME Magazine, The Economist, New York Times, Financial Times, CNN, BBC and Reuters.
Professor Khosla said:
“I am delighted to have been awarded the title of Professor of Environmental Science and Policy, and I look forward to continuing this work with colleagues and students at the ZERO Institute and across the University.”
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Professor Hoye leads the Hoye Group, an interdisciplinary team of 17 researchers developing materials for clean energy conversion. The Group’s research includes developing high-performing semiconductors (substances used in solar panels and other electronics) that function well even with high levels of defects, devising methods for making advanced materials including nanocrystals and thin films, and assembling complex structures from new materials for use in sustainable energy applications.
Professor Hoye is the Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair and Fellow of St John’s College. He also serves as Chief Technical Officer of NanoPrint Innovations Ltd., which is commercialising a precision manufacturing technique that could significantly improve the performance of photovoltaic devices.
Prof. Hoye is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, a Chartered Engineer and a Chartered Scientist and serves on the editorial advisory board of many high-profile scientific journals. He is a recipient of, amongst others, the EU-40 Materials Prize (Paul Siffert Award), the Royal Society of Chemistry Beilby Medal and Prize, and listed in the 2023 MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 Europe.
Professor Hoye said:
“It is an honour to receive the title of Professor so early in my career, reflecting the hard work and dedication of my entire research group. I look forward to further developing our research into clean energy materials and working on real-world applications to accelerate the energy transition.”
