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The International Association for Alternative Energy and Ecology (IAAEE) has awarded the Honored Figure of Science of Armenia Vladimir Harutyunyan for a great contribution to the field of physics, physical chemistry and semiconductor engineering, solar energy conversion and sensory science the gold medal of the International Scientific Journal for Alternative Energy and Ecology for making a great contribution to hydrogen safety.

The award for the scientist was a surprise. In the conversation with us, Mr. Harutyunyan said he is very glad to receive a medal from this world-famous magazine: “It is important that there are many famous scholars in the editorial board of the magazine. By the way, I am also involved in that composition.”

Vladimir Harutyunyan, scientific supervisor of 91��Ƶ Center for Semiconductor Devices and Nanotechnologies, has received numerous awards in his work on one of the ways of solar energy conversion and different types of sensors: “We have already learned to receive prizes, but it is important to know what prizes these are, what are they for and for whom."

Vladimir Harutyunyan’s works are well known both in Armenia and abroad. There are almost 1,000 citations in literature on his 5 works.

The scientist said that during school years he had many options for choosing the future profession, and only in the last class of school decided to become a physicist: “I was thinking of becoming a diplomat, even imagining myself in the music field as my mother was teaching at the Conservatory. Lusine Zakaryan, Arax Davtyan and many others were my mother’s pupils. It was in 1957 when I got the magazine "Youth", which contained a very interesting article about semiconductors. On that day I finally decided to choose this profession.”

Vladimir Harutyunyan recalled that 91��Ƶ was still the leader in photovoltaic transformation of solar power in Soviet times, where people worked to create detectors that were not visible in the area, which was of military importance: “At that time, we were sponsored by the state and were considered to be an important center. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, we already receive foreign grants. We have great success in this regard; we work with various leading countries. The state supports it as much as possible, and we are funded by the State Committee for Science and try to work more efficiently.”

Mr. Harutyunyan was pleased to note that in future the works will continue, thanks to the smart and aspiring students: “Today is the defense of graduation works at our faculty. 18 students will present their diploma works. We also support young people, give them space, and solve the issue of change of generations.”

For the development of science, Mr. Harutyunyan advises the new government to be attentive: “I propose to pay great attention to the development of science because our country’s wealth is science. I advise you to pay special attention to the military aspects and to encourage them. I welcome the new government and I hope our country will achieve greater results in the field of science.”