Daniel Yergin, vice chairman of IHS, is the recipient of the inaugural Carnot Prize by the University of Pennsylvania’s Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, IHS said Sept. 22. The Carnot Prize recognizes distinguished contributions to energy policy through scholarship and/or practice.

It honors those who have revolutionized our understanding of energy policy. Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell will present the award to Yergin at the university during events planned for October 12 to 13.

The prize memorializes French scientist Sadi Carnot, who in 1824 published "Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire," which became the basis for the second law of thermodynamics.

“Sadi Carnot played a decisive role in the energy transitions that have transformed the world, and I am so pleased that the Kleinman Center has named its annual award after this brilliant thinker,” Yergin said.

“I am deeply grateful to be the first recipient. I look forward to my visit with Penn faculty and students to reflect on ‘great revolutions’ in energy, past and future, and to help recognize the important contributions that the Kleinman Center and Penn will make to the understanding of our energy future.”

Yergin won the Pulitzer Prize for his 1991 book "The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power."

Yergin has a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a doctorate from Cambridge University in England.

He is a member of several organizations, including the National Petroleum Council and the U.S. Secretary of Energy’s Advisory Board. He is a trustee of the Brookings Institution and a director of the Council on Foreign Relations and the New America Foundation.

He is also on the advisory board of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Energy Initiative and the Yale University Climate and Energy Institute. In 2014, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Prime Minister of India and the James Schlesinger Medal for Energy Security from the U.S. Department of Energy.