Photovoltaic Devices Committee

Dr. Dalal is Whitney Chair Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Iowa State University. He received his B.E. degree in Electrical Engineering from University of Bombay in India in 1964, and Ph.D. from Princeton University, also in EE, in 1969. He also holds a M.P.A. with focus on Economics from Princeton. Dr. Dalal has extensive research experience in both academia and industry, having worked as a research scientist at RCA Laboratories, and at several small companies. His academic experience includes working as a research scientist at University of Delaware’s Institute of Energy Conversion, and as Professor and Director of Microelectronics Research Center at Iowa State University. His expertise is in R&D on photovoltaic materials and devices. He has published over 180 papers and refereed proceedings articles, and also holds 12 U.S. patents. He is a Fellow of IEEE, American Physical Society and American Association for Advancement of Science.

Lecture Titles

- Photovoltaic energy conversion, solar energy systems, energy systems, energy economics, energy and environment

I am a Research and Teaching academic in the School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering and an ARC Future Fellow (2017-2021). My research focuses on the areas of silicon solar cell metallisation and interconnection, optical modelling for photovoltaics and more recently high power lithium ion storage and autonomous solar energy harvesting devices. Within the Learning & Teaching space, I have been activley involved in developing innovative teaching approaches, especially using gamification for greater student engagement. I have led the development of both the PV Factory and PlayEnergy teaching software and will in 2020 lead one of the initial vertically-integrated projects in the Faculty of Engineering's project-based learning trial. Prior to my employment at UNSW in 2010, I worked as a research scientist at Canon Information Systems Research Australia, where I was involved in research ranging from display and printing device simulations to the development of materials/technology for printing, imaging and display applications.

Michael Walls is Professor of Photovoltaics for Power Systems in the Centre for Renewable Energy Systems Technology (CREST) at Loughborough University in UK. He is responsible for photovoltaics device research within CREST and his research focus is in thin film photovoltaics. Professor Walls started his career at Loughborough University in the Physics Department where he specialized in surface and thin films research and set up a surface analysis facility which provided a successful service to UK industry using a variety of techniques including Auger electron spectroscopy, XPS, Dynamic SIMS and Laser Microprobe. In 1984, he moved into industry in Technical Director and then Managing Director roles within VG Instruments plc (now Thermo-Fisher Scientific). His team at VG was the first to develop the gallium Focused Ion Beam (FIB) technology and the world’s first Imaging Time-of-Flight SIMS. VG Instruments won the Queen’s Award for Export Achievement in 1987. He then went on to found a series of high technology companies involved in thin film optical coating, thermal management systems and atom probe instrumentation. In 1996, one of these companies, Applied Vision Ltd, won the Queen’s Award for Technological Achievement for pioneering the use of magnetron sputtering to deposit anti-reflection coatings on ophthalmic lenses. Applied Vision Ltd was later acquired by the BOC Group in 2001. Professor Walls returned to Loughborough in 2009. In 2012 he became the Director of the £5m EPSRC Supergen Solar Hub and was awarded the 2012 Award for Research and Development by “SOLAR”. He is a member of the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) UK PV Strategy Group and Co-Chair of its Innovation Task Force. He is an active member of the Ion and Plasma Surface Interactions (IPSI) Group of the Institute of Physics and is organizer of the “Advances in Photovoltaics” meeting held annually in London. He is currently Chairman of Applied Thermal Control Ltd which he co-founded in 1995, and non-executive Director of Power Vision Ltd, which he co-founded in 2009. He has more than 100 publications including 3 books and 15 patents. His current research includes: Current research topics include: High efficiency thin film CdTe photovoltaics by magnetron sputtering; Laser ablation/inkjet interconnect manufacturing processes for thin film solar cells; Low cost integrated PV in double glazed windows using CdTe bifacial solar cells; Reclaimed Silicon wafers for Photovoltaics. He is a member of the International Advisory Board of the IEEE Photovoltaics Specialist Conference (PVSC), and in this connection, he is a regular attendee at the IEEE PVSC conferences every year.