Goyal receives industrial achievement award for superconducting technology

BUFFALO, N.Y. – University at Buffalo researcher Amit Goyal was recognized by organizers of a leading international conference on superconductivity and magnetism with an industrial achievement award for his contributions to the field.

Goyal, PhD, is a SUNY Distinguished Professor and SUNY Empire Innovation Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering.

He received the award – the ICSM 2026 International Industrial Career Achievement Award in Superconductivity – at the 11th International Conference on Superconductivity and Magnetism (ICSM), which was held jointly with the 4th International Conference on Quantum Materials and Technologies (ICQMT) in Türkiye from April 19-26. The ICSM and ICQMT bring together worldwide experts to address grand challenges and converging themes in superconductors, magnetic and quantum materials. 

The honor, one of two industrial lifetime achievement awards given at the conferences, recognized Goyal for his “transformative contributions to superconducting technologies through the development of advanced coated conductors.” The other was awarded to Masato Sagawa, inventor of NdFeB (neodymium, iron and boron) magnets.

Organizers noted Goyal's “work has enabled the realization of high-temperature superconducting systems with enhanced performance, reliability, and scalability. These advancements have played a critical role in enabling superconducting applications in power grids, high-field magnets, energy storage systems, and next-generation electrical infrastructure, contributing significantly to global energy efficiency and sustainability.”

The citation also states that Goyal has “played a central leadership role in bridging fundamental materials research with industrial deployment,” and that he is “internationally recognized as a leading figure in applied superconductivity and coated conductor technologies.”

Goyal said he is “honored and humbled” by the recognition.

“I particularly thank Professor Ali Gencer, the lead conference series organizer of the ICSM-ICQMT conference, which has now become a truly international and leading conference in superconductivity, magnetism and quantum materials with over 650 attendees from over 60 countries this year, despite ongoing geopolitical disturbances in the Middle East. A unique feature of the conference is that it spans from fundamental science to applications bringing together leading scientists in three scientific areas across the technology readiness levels. I also thank the awards committee.”

Goyal’s research and innovations have addressed key fundamental challenges towards fabrication of high-performance, kilometer-long, high-temperature superconducting (HTS) wires, now known as coated conductors. These include the Rolling-Assisted-Biaxially-Textured-Substrates (RABiTS) substrate technology; the LMOe-enabled, IBAD-MgO substrate technology, both for single-crystal-like HTS wire manufacture; and the strain-driven, self-assembly of non-superconducting, nanocolumnar defects at nanoscale spacings within HTS wires for high-performance, especially in high-applied magnetic fields. 

Today, most HTS wire-manufacturers worldwide use one or more of these innovations to fabricate kilometer-long, high-performance HTS wires. This technology has numerous large-scale applications in energy generation (magnetic confinement based nuclear fusion for energy generation and offshore wind), energy transmission (cables including superconducting power infrastructure for gigawatt scale AI data centers), energy storage (superconducting magnetic energy storage systems (SMES), energy-efficient devices (superconducting motors, generators, transformers) medical areas (next generation MRI and nuclear magnetic resonance for drug discovery) and defense (all-electric ships and deguassing of ships and all-electric planes).  

In 2011, Goyal received the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award in the inaugural category of Energy Science and Innovation. The U.S. Secretary of Energy bestows the award on behalf of the president of the United States. The award category recognizes transformative accomplishments related to the DOE’s investments in “use inspired” scientific research to advance energy innovation. It is given to scientists who have helped elevate U.S. science to world leadership.

He has received 10 R&D 100 Awards, which are often regarded as the “Oscars of innovation;” three national Federal Laboratory Consortium awards for technology transfer; the 2012 World Technology Award in the category of Materials; 2010 R&D 100 Magazine’s Innovator of the Year Award; and the 2010 Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Indian Institute of Technology.

He also has been awarded the University of Rochester’s Distinguished Scholar Medal in 2007; the U.S. Department of Energy Exceptional Accomplishment Award in 2005; the ORNL Inventor-of-the-Year Awards in 2005 and 1999; the 2005 Global Indus Technovator Award; in 2001 the Energy-100 Award for the finest 100 scientific accomplishments of DOE since its creation in 1977; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Technical Review TR100 Award; and the Lockheed-Martin NOVA Award for technical achievement in 1999.

In December, Goyal was recognized for his accomplishments by local elected officials. State Senator Sean M. Ryan (now mayor of Buffalo), state Assemblymember Karen M. McMahon, Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz, and the mayor and town council of Amherst, New York, issued proclamations acknowledging his lifetime scientific accomplishments. Also, Rep. Timothy M. Kennedy entered a statement into the congressional record in the House of Representatives of the 119^th Congress on Dec. 9 celebrating Goyal’s lifetime achievements in the field of high-temperature superconductors towards realizing industrial applications.

He has over 360 publications and was the most cited author worldwide in the field of high-temperature superconductivity from 1999-2009. He has 88 issued patents, most of which have been licensed.  

He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Inventors, and is a Foreign Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India. In addition, he is an elected fellow of nine professional societies: the American Association for Advancement of Science, the Materials Research Society, the American Physical Society, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the World Innovation Foundation, the American Society of Metals, the Institute of Physics, the American Ceramic Society and the World Technology Network.