Honorary Degree, Doctor of Science

KR Sridhar

Accomplished researcher, you earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the National Institute of Technology at Tiruchirappalli, India, as well as a master’s and doctorate from the University of Illinois. You were a professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering at the University of Arizona, where you also served as director of the Space Technologies Laboratory. Under your leadership, the laboratory won competitive contracts to conduct research and development for Mars exploration and flight experiments.

Lauded futurist, you have served as an advisor to NASA and have led major consortia of industry, academia, and national laboratories. You and your team at the Space Technologies Laboratory developed a method to use atmospheric gases from Mars to produce oxygen for life support and propulsion. For your innovation, you were named by Fortune Magazine as “one of the top five futurists inventing tomorrow, today.”

Pioneer in green technology, you are the founder and CEO of Bloom Energy, a company with a mission to produce clean, reliable, and affordable power. Bloom’s proprietary solid oxide technology—also known as a Bloom Box—converts natural gas, biogas, or hydrogen into electricity without combustion, resulting in low or no carbon dioxide emission. The technology is being used to generate power for companies such as Honda, Google, FedEx, Verizon, Kellogg’s, and The Home Depot.

In 2009, Time magazine named you as one of its “Tech Pioneers Who Will Change Your Life,” and in 2010, the Bloom Box was named one of the 50 best inventions of the year.

You remain confident that the climate crisis is also an economic opportunity, and that we can solve our energy problems with a combination of technology, innovation, and conversation. And, you are leading the way to that future.

Therefore, under the authority of the Board of Trustees of the University of Delaware, I have the honor of conferring on you, KR Sridhar, the degree of Doctor of Science. In testimony thereof, I am pleased to present to you this diploma.

Terri L. Kelly
Chairman of the Board of Trustees
May 25, 2024