UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Lisa Iulo, professor of architecture and director of the Hamer Center for Community Design in the Penn State College of Arts and Architecture’s Stuckeman School, was named the winner of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon 2024 Faculty Award.     

Iulo has served as an adviser for the interdisciplinary Penn State Solar Decathlon team for nine consecutive design challenges, including the 2022 team that finished third in the Retrofit Housing Division of the competition. She was the team adviser of two Build Challenge competitions on the National Mall in Washington: in 2007 for the MorningStar Solar Home, which is now part of the Penn State Sustainability Experience Center, and in 2009 for the Natural Fusion home.

Through her involvement with the Solar Decathlon competition and her work with the Energy Efficient Housing Research Group, an outreach arm of the Hamer Center for Community Design, and the Pennsylvania Housing Research Center in the College of Engineering, Iulo has developed Solar Decathlon-related architecture and architectural engineering studio courses at Penn State that connect students with local communities to work on real-world projects that benefit people and the environment. 

Examples of such studio course-related projects are the MorningStar Solar Home, which won a BP Solar Performance Award and a PVNews Editors’ Choice Award; and and the award-winning State College Community Land Trust GreenBuild solar duplex, located at 1394 University Drive in State College, which won a Commonwealth Award from the 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania in 2019.  

“I am honored to receive this award. The solar decathlon has been a hallmark of my past 20 years at Penn State, and I couldn’t be more proud of our related accomplishments,” said Iulo. “This would not be possible without our exceptional students and my respected colleagues, especially Rahman Azari who graciously nominated me for this award.”

The Solar Decathlon Faculty Award is presented annually to a past or current faculty adviser of a U.S. Solar Decathlon Design Challenge team who demonstrates outstanding commitment to preparing students to design and/or build highly efficient buildings powered by renewables.

Formerly known as the DOE Race to Zero Competition, the Solar Decathlon Design Challenge is a collegiate competition that challenges student teams to design and build highly efficient and innovative buildings powered by renewable energy. In its current iteration, the competition consists of a design challenge with six divisions, as well as a build challenge. Learn more about the competition on the DOE website.