Editor-in-Chief and Editors

Antonia Sônia Alves Cardoso Diniz

 

Antonia Sônia Alves Cardoso Diniz received her B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais (Belo Horizonte, Brasil) in 1981, following a Bachelor of Physics in 1980 from Federal University of Minas Gerais (Belo Horizonte, Brasil) in 1980.  She received her Ph.D. from University of Liverpool in 1995 in Materials Science and Engineering (Liverpool, U.K.), with research on photovoltaic materials. Dr. Diniz was a visiting professor at Arizona State University in the Photovoltaic Reliability Laboratory (Mesa, USA) in 2013. She worked 28 years as Specialist Engineer at Energetic Company of Minas Gerais – CEMIG (the largest electricity company in Brasil) and had responsibilities for PV rural-electrification projects bringing electricity to remote-area populations for the first time in Brasil (part of the Brasil program “Luz para Tudos”). In 2005, Dr. Diniz accepted a faculty position at the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais (PUC Minas).  Currently, she is the Coordinator (Director) of the “Grupo de Estudo em Energia” (GREEN) that includes programs for the certification of solar products for Brasil. This past year, GREEN received ISO 17025 accreditation. She is an Associate Professor in the Graduate Program of Mechanical Engineering—and has teaching responsibilities in the School of Energy Engineering.  Dr. Diniz has more than 100 publications dealing with energy materials, solar thermal, energy efficiency and distributed energy resources, photovoltaic systems, and PV module and system reliability. Dr. Diniz is a consultant for the Government of Brasil’s Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)-under the Ministry of Education. She was Associate Editor of the Elsevier journal Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews for 5 years. She is a member of the IEEE, ABENS, and ISES.  She is active with these professional organizations, and is a Member of the International Committee of the IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC) and is a reviewer for the IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics and Elsevier Renewable Energy, and many others. Her current research includes funded projects in PV module and system reliability and soiling issues, PV utility deployment for rural electriciation and monitoring of PV grid connected in distributed systems, energy efficiency and solar materials/device engineering and testing.

 

 

Chih-hung Chang is currently a Professor in the School of Chemical, Biological, and Environmental Engineering at the Oregon State University (OSU). He received his B.S. degree in chemical engineering from National Taiwan University (1991), and Ph.D. degree in chemical engineering from the University of Florida (1999). His PhD research is focused on CIGS thin film photovoltaics. Since joining OSU in 2000, his research group has studied thin film electronics, solution-based thin film deposition, ink jet printing, microreaction technology, and nanomaterials. His research group was among the first to report inkjet printing amorphous oxide TFTs and CIGS solar cells. Microreactor-Assisted Nanomaterial Deposition, MAND, a technique that was developed by his group, was recognized by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers as the 2011 SME “Innovations That Could Change the Way You Manufacture” Watch List. Chih-hung is a SHARP Labs of America scholar, an Intel Faculty Fellow, and a recipient of OSU Faculty Innovator Award, OSU COE Research Award, 2015 TechConnect National Innovation Award, AVS Graduate Research award, National Science Foundation’s CAREER award, and awardees of W.M. Keck Foundation. He is the founder and Director of Oregon Process Innovation Center, an Oregon BEST signature research lab. He is the founder of a start-up venture, CSD Nano Inc. which is commercializing a retrofit AR coating technology for solar photovoltaics. He has more than 110 refereed publications, 11 issued patents, and 5 pending patents.

Richard Corkish graduated with distinction as a Communications Engineer from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 1986 then worked with the CSIRO Division of Radiophysics on satellite earth-station antenna design and testing before studying for the PhD degree under the supervision of Professor Martin Green at the University of New South Wales’ Centre for Photovoltaic Devices and Systems. After a brief period working with the Rainbow Power Company in Nimbin he has worked on solar cell theory, applications and education at UNSW. He is currently the Head of School at the School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering, UNSW.

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

Frank Dimroth (head of department III-V Epitaxy and Solar cells at Fraunhofer ISE) received his Diploma in physics from the University of Zurich, Switzerland, in 1996 and his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Constance, Germany, in 2000. He performed his Ph.D. thesis on “Metal organic vapour phase epitaxy for the fabrication of high-efficiency solar cells from III-V semiconductors” at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE). After a Postdoc at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, he returned to Fraunhofer ISE as a senior scientist in 2001. Since 2007 he was named manager and later head of department “III-V Epitaxy and Solar Cells” with currently 60 employees. His main interests are high efficiency multi-junction solar cell architectures for next-generation photovoltaic devices. Within the last 15 years he performed applied research in the fields of space- and terrestrial concentrator photovoltaics for electricity and hydrogen production and published more than 150 scientific papers. Frank Dimroth was co-founder of Concentrix Solar in 2005, today part of Soitec. The company produces high-concentration photovoltaic systems previously developed in the group at Fraunhofer ISE. In 2009, his research group demonstrated for the first time a triple-junction solar cell with 41.1 % efficiency under concentration. Today, four-junction devices with up to 46.0 % efficiency have been achieved. Frank Dimroth and his team received the Fraunhofer price 2010, the prestigious French Louis D science award 2010 and the French-German Economy price 2011.

Stefan W. Glunz was born in Dortmund, Germany in 1966. He received his Diploma and Ph.D. (Dr. rer. nat.) in physics from the Albert-Ludwigs University in Freiburg in 1991 and 1995 respectively. He carried out the research for his Ph.D. thesis at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE in Freiburg. The thesis work focused on the analysis of charge carrier recombination in crystalline silicon solar cells. After finishing his Ph.D., Stefan Glunz joined Fraunhofer ISE as a scientist, and in 1996 he became Group Head of High-Efficiency Silicon Solar Cells. Since 2007 Glunz heads the Department of Solar Cells – Development and Characterization at Fraunhofer ISE. His department consists of 140 employees including 28 Ph.D. students. His responsibilities also include the supervision of Ph.D. and Master students as well as teaching and lecturing at the University of Freiburg. His research covers the entire spectrum from fundamental material research as the analysis of the metastable defect in boron-doped Cz-grown silicon to the development and analysis of high-efficiency silicon solar cell structures and processes. Dr. Glunz is in charge of the technological and scientific cooperation with other international research institutes and with the photovoltaic industry. Among other achievements his department holds the world record for multicrystalline silicon solar cells (20.4%). Dr. Glunz is the author/coauthor of more than 80 journal and 250 conference papers. In 2008 he received the Eni Award for the promotion of science and technology in the field of renewable energies. He is a scientific committee member for several conferences and workshops in the field of solar energy and has initiated a successful annual workshop for Ph.D. students concentrating on crystalline silicon solar cells (SiliconFOREST) and, for the first time in 2011, an international conference on crystalline silicon photovoltaics (SiliconPV).

Clemens Heske is a Professor for Materials/Physical Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry, University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). He received his Dr. rer. nat. in Physics from the University of Würzburg in Germany in 1998. After two years as a postdoctoral fellow at the Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, he became a “wissenschaftlicher Assistent” at the University of Würzburg and completed his German Habilitation in Experimental Physics in December of 2003. In 2004, he joined the UNLV Chemistry Department. Clemens Heske and his research group uses soft x-rays and microscopy tools to study surfaces and interfaces in a wide variety of systems for energy conversion, with particular emphasis on materials and devices for solar energy conversion. He has published over 110 peer-reviewed journal publications, including 40 letters, over 70 non-refereed publications in conference proceedings and annual reports of synchrotron radiation sources, and 4 conference proceedings (as editor) and book chapters. After serving as a co-organizer of two symposia on Thin Film Photovoltaics at the Spring 2007 and 2009 Materials Research Society (MRS) meetings, respectively, he acted as one of the meeting co-chairs of the Fall 2010 MRS Meeting in Boston.

Karin Hinzer received the BSc, MSc, and PhD degrees in physics from the University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, in 1996, 1998, and 2002, respectively. She is a Professor at the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science with a cross-appointment in the department of Physics at the University of Ottawa. She has made pioneering contributions to the experimental physics of quantum dots marked by two landmark papers in Science. She gained extensive experience in the design and fabrication of group III-V semiconductor devices while at the National Research Council Canada, Nortel Networks and then Bookham (now Oclaro). Cost reduction strategies and liaison with remote fabrication facilities strongly feature in her industry experience. Professor Hinzer joined the University of Ottawa in 2007 where she founded the SUNLAB, the premier Canadian modelling and characterization laboratory for next generation multi-junction solar devices and concentrator systems. With its designation as a University of Ottawa Core Facility and its close integration with the Centre for Research in Photonics, the SUNLAB leverages its resources for collaborations with other research groups from within the university and the rest of the world, as well as with industrial partners. Professor Hinzer’s research involves developing new ways to harness the sun’s energy. From 2007 to 2017, she was the Tier II Canada Research Chair in Photonic Nanostructures and Integrated Devices. In 2010, she was the recipient of the Inaugural Canadian Energy Award with industry partner Morgan Solar for the development of more efficient solar panels. In 2015, she received the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation Early Researcher Award for her contributions to the fields of photonic devices and photovoltaic systems and in 2016, she was the recipient of the University of Ottawa Young Researcher Award. She is a member of the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists of the Royal Society of Canada and an IEEE senior member. Professor Hinzer is the principal investigator of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Collaborative Research and Training Experience Program titled “Training in Optoelectronics for Power: from Science and Engineering to Technology” (NSERC CREATE TOP-SET), a multi-disciplinary training program involving three universities and aiming to train over 100 students in six years. Professor Hinzer has published over 150 refereed papers, trained over 110 highly-qualified personnel and her laboratory has spun-off three Canadian companies in the energy sector. Her research interests include new materials, high efficiency light sources and light detectors, solar cells, solar modules, new electrical grid architectures and voltage converters. 

Associate Professor Bram Hoex completed both a MSc and PhD degree from Eindhoven University of Technology in 2003 and 2008, respectively. From 2008 to 2015 he worked at the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) as a Group Leader and from 2012 also as Director of the Silicon Materials and Cells Cluster. In 2015 he joined the School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering (SPREE) at UNSW Sydney where he currently serves as Deputy Head of School (Research). His research group focusses on the fabrication and characterization of high-efficiency silicon wafer solar cells with a particular focus on surface passivation and passivating contacts. He is best known for his groundbreaking work on aluminium oxide for crystalline silicon surface passivation which is now the de facto standard for industrial PERC solar cells. He also pioneered the application of atomic layer deposition for silicon wafer solar cell manufacturing. He has published over 150 journal and conference papers, and in 2018 he released PV-manufacturing.org which is aimed at educating students and professionals in the area of photovoltaic manufacturing. His work has received various international recognitions including the 2008 SolarWorld Junior Einstein and the 2016 IEEE PVSC Young Professional awards.

Seth Hubbard received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan Ann Arbor in 2005 and is currently an Associate Professor of Physics and Microsystems Engineering at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He also holds joint appointment at RIT as graduate faculty in the Carlson Center of Imaging Science and the Golisano Institute for Sustainability. His doctoral research consisted of studying the effects of materials properties and epitaxial device design on high power GaN heterojunction field effect transistors grown using vapor phase epitaxy. Dr. Hubbard currently leads a team of graduate students and research staff working on the epitaxial growth, fabrication and characterization of III-V photovoltaic and electronic devices, with an emphasis on novel materials and nanostructures such as quantum dots. He has authored or co-authored over 70 journal and conference publications on III-V electronic and photovoltaic devices. Prior to RIT, Dr. Hubbard was a National Research Council (NRC) Postdoctoral Research Associate at NASA Glenn Research Center. Dr. Hubbard has also served as Publications Chair for the IEEE Photovoltaics Specialist Conference.

Professor Alex Jen obtained his Ph. D. from the Department of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania in 1984. He is currently the Boeing-Johnson Chair Professor and Chair of the Department of Materials Science & Engineering. He is also the Founding Director of the Institute of Advanced Material for Energy Solutions at the University of Washington. His research interest is focused on utilizing molecular, polymeric and biomacromolecular self-assembly to create ordered arrangement of organic and inorganic functional materials for photonics, opto-electronics, nanomedicine and nanotechnology. He has co-authored more than 500 publications and given over 300 invited technical presentations. He is also an inventor or co-inventor for more than 50 patents and invention disclosures. For his contributions in the organic photonics and electronics, he was elected as a Fellow by several professional societies including the American Association of the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2005, the International Society of Optical Engineering (SPIE) in 2006, the Optical Society America (OSA) in 2008, and the American Chemical Society’s Polymeric Materials Science & Engineering Division (PMSE) in 2009. He was appointed in 2007 by the Governor of the State of Washington as the Board of Directors for the Washington Technology Center. Professional Experience and Research Interests: 2006-present Director, Institute of Advanced Materials and Technology, University of Washington 2005-present Chair, Department of Materials Science & Engineering, University of Washington 2003-present Associate Director and Thrust Leader, The NSF-funded Science & Technology Center on “Materials & Devices for Information Technology” ($40M/10yrs) 2003-present Professor, Department of Chemistry 1999-present Professor, Dept. of Materials Science & Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 1997-1999 Associate Professor, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 1995-1996 Vice President, ROITech, Monmouth Junction, NJ 1988-1994 Group Leader/Senior Scientist, EniChem America Inc., NJ 1984-1988 Research Scientist, Allied-Signal, NJ Honor and Awards: Editor, IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, 11- World Class University (WCU) Professor, Korea University, 09- PMSE Fellow, The American Chemical Society, Division of Polymeric Materials Science & Engineering, 08 Board of Directors, Washington Technology Center, Appointed by the Governor of Washington State, 07 Faculty of Research Innovator Award, College of Engineering, University of Washington, 07 Changjiang Endowed Chair Professor, Wuhan University, Ministry of Education, China, 07 OSA Fellow, The Optical Society of America, 07 SPIE Fellow, The International Society of Optical Engineering, 06 AAAS Fellow, The American Association for the Advancement of Science, 05 Member of the Editorial Advisory Board, Chemistry of Materials, NPG-Asia Materials, Journal of the Experimental Nanoscience Member of Advisory Board, Institute of Chemistry, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, 02-04, 08-10 Member of Advisory Board, College of Sciences, National Chiao-Tung University, Taiwan, 08 Boeing-Johnson Endowed Chair, University of Washington, 1999- Industrial Fellow (rank as full professor), Northwestern University, 95-00 Founder’s Award, ROITech, 95 Outstanding Achievement Award, EniChem America, 94 President’s Award, EniChem America, 89 Representative publications selected from >500 papers: “Creating Favorable Geometries for Directing Organic Photoreactions in Alkanethiolate Monolayers”, M. Kim, J. N. Hohman, Y. Cao, K. N. Houk, H. Ma, A. K.-Y. Jen, and P. S. Weiss, Science, 2011, 331, 1312. “Molecular Biomimetics: Nanotechnology through Biology”, M. Sarikaya, C. Tamerler, A. K-Y. Jen, K. Schulten, and F. Baneyx, An Invited Review in Nature Materials, 2003, 2, 577. “Terahertz All-Optical Modulator in Silicon”, M. Hochberg, T. Bachr-Jones, G. Wang, J. D. Luo, P. Sullivan, A. K-Y. Jen, L. Dalton, and A. Scherer, Nature Materials, 2006, 5(9), 703. “Record Electro-optic Coefficient of 170 pm/V and Vp of 1V at 1.55 mm in Hybrid Crosslinkable Polymer/Sol-gel Waveguide Modulators”, Y. Enami, C. T. DeRose, D. Mathine, C. Loychik, C. Greenlee, R. A. Norwood, T. D. Kim, J. Luo, Y. Tian, A. K-Y. Jen, and N. Peyghambarian, Nature Photonics, 2007, 1, 180. “Development of New Conjugated Polymers with Donor-p-Bridge-Acceptor Side Chains for High Performance Solar Cells”, F. Huang, K-S. Chen, H-L. Yip, S. K. Hau, O. Acton, Y. Zhang, J. D. Luo, and A. K-Y. Jen, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2009, 131, 1388. “Interface Engineering for Organic Electronics”, H. Ma, H. L. Yip, F. Huang, and A. K-Y. Jen, an Invited Feature Article, Adv. Func. Mater., 2010, 20(9), 1371. “Cooperative Near-field Surface Plasmon Enhanced Quantum Dot Nanoarrays”, K. Leong, Y. Chen, D. J. Masiello, M. T. Zin, M. Hnilova, H. Ma, M. Sarikaya, D. S. Ginger, and A. K.-Y. Jen, Adv. Func. Mater., 2010, 20, 2675. “Efficient Polymer Solar Cells Based on the Copolymers of Benzodithiophene and Thienopyrroledione”, Y. Zhang, S. K. Hau, H.-L. Yip, Y. Sun, O. Acton, and A. K.-Y. Jen, Chem. Mater., 2010, 22, 2696. “Directed Assembly of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes via Drop-Casting onto a UV-Patterned Photosensitive Monolayer”, J. A. Bardecker, A. Afzali, G. S. Tulevski, T. Graham, J. B. Hannon, and A. K-Y. Jen, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2008, 130(23), 7226. 10. “Mesoscale Dynamics and Cooperativity of Networking Dendronized Nonlinear Optical Molecular Glasses”, T. Gray, T-D. Kim, D. Knorr, J. D. Luo, A. K.-Y. Jen, and R. M. Overney, Nano Lett., 2008, 8(2), 754. 11. “Ultra-Large and Thermally Stable Electro-Optic Activities from Supramolecular Self-Assembled Molecular Glasses”, T. D. Kim, J. W. Kang, J. D. Luo, S. H. Jang, S. Hau, Z. Shi, R. M. Overney, J. B. Benedict, and A. K-Y. Jen, J. Am. Chem. Soc, 2007, 129, 488. 12. “Supramolecular Self-Assembled Dendritic Nonlinear Optical Chromophores: Fine-Tuning of Arene-Perfluoroarene Interactions for Ultra-large Electro-Optic Activity and Enhanced Thermal Stability”, X. H. Zhou, J. D. Luo, T. D. Kim, Z. Shi, S. Huang, Y. J. Cheng, S. H. Jang, and A. K-Y. Jen, Adv. Mater., 2009, 21(19), 1976. 13. “Polymer Solar Cells using Self-Assembled Monolayers Modified ZnO/Metals as Cathodes”, H-L. Yip, S. K. Hau, H. Ma, A. K.-Y. Jen, Adv. Mater., 2008, 20(12), 2376. 14. “p-s-Phosphonic Acid Organic Monolayer/High-k Metal Oxide Hybrid Dielectrics for Low-Voltage Organic Transistors”, O. Acton, G. Ting, H. Ma, J. W. Ka, H. L. Yip, N. M. Tucker, and A. K-Y. Jen, Adv. Mater., 2008, 20(19), 3697. 15. “Patterning of Robust Self-Assembled n-type Hexaazatrinaphthylene-based Nanorods and Nanowires by Microcontact Printing”, H.-L. Yip, J. Zhou, H. Ma, Y. Tian, N. M. Tucker, and A. K.-Y. Jen, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2006, 128, 13042. 16. “Efficient CdSe/CdS Quantum Dot Light-Emitting Diodes Using a Thermally Polymerized Hole Transport Layer”, J. Zhao, J. A. Bardecker, A. M. Munro, M. S. Liu, Y. Niu, I-K. Ding, J. Luo, B. Chen, A. K-Y. Jen, and D. S. Ginger, Nano Lett., 2006, 6(3), 463. 17. “Ordered Self-Assembly and Electronic Behavior of C60-Anthrylphenylacetylene Hybrid” S. H. Kang, H. Ma, M. H. Zareie, M. Kang, K. Kim, M. Sarikaya, and A. K.-Y. Jen, Angew. Chem, Int. Ed., 2004, 43(12), 1512. 18. “Controlled Assembly of Conducting Monomers for Molecular Electronics”, H. Zareie, H. Ma, B. Reed, A. K-Y. Jen, and M. Sarikaya, Nano Lett., 2003, 3(2), 139.

Prof. Richard R. King received his Ph.D. and M.S. from Stanford University in Electrical Engineering, and his B.S in Physics, also from Stanford. He is currently Professor of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering at Arizona State University. Over the past 30 years, his research on photovoltaics has explored high-efficiency solar cells in a number of semiconductor materials systems, from silicon, to the GaInP, GaInAs, and germanium subcells in III-V multijunction cells. Dr. King and his colleagues have been especially interested in the materials science and device physics of III-V multijunction solar cells for concentrator photovoltaics (CPV), and in the defect physics of low-cost semiconductors for high-efficiency, flat-plate multijunction cells. In his Ph.D. research at Stanford University, Dr. King worked to develop high-efficiency one-sun back-contact silicon solar cells, and on characterization of minority-carrier recombination at the doped Si/SiO2 interface for high-efficiency silicon solar cell design. Since then his research has contributed to understanding of metamorphic III-V materials lattice-mismatched to the growth substrate; group-III sublattice ordering in GaInP; minority-carrier recombination at III-V heterointerfaces; high-transparency tunnel junctions; dilute nitride materials such as ~1-eV GaInNAs and GaNAsSb for solar cells; and high-efficiency multijunction solar cells with 3 to 6 junctions. Dr. King led Spectrolab's development of high-efficiency III-V multijunction concentrator solar cells, recognized with R&D 100 awards in 2001 and 2007, and a Scientific American 50 award in 2002. In 2006, this work led to a record 40.7%-efficient metamorphic 3-junction terrestrial concentrator cell, the first solar cell to reach over 40% efficiency. At Arizona State University, Dr. King's research group investigates recombination at defects and interfaces in low-cost polycrystalline solar cell materials, and integrating them into tandem solar cells with silicon to realize the high-efficiency multijunction cell structure in a cost-effective flat-plate format. As part of a strong interest in furthering public and scientific awareness of photovoltaics, Dr. King has helped organize a number of international conferences, serving as Program Chair for the 4th International Conference on Solar Concentrators (ICSC) in 2007, and the 35th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC) in 2010, and he was General Chair for the 40th IEEE PVSC in Denver, Colorado, in 2014. He has served as a Co-founding Editor of the IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics since 2010. Dr. King is the recipient of the 2010 William R. Cherry Award, given at the IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, for "outstanding contributions to photovoltaic science and technology." Dr. King was inducted into the Space Technology Hall of Fame in 2004, and has 24 patents and over 140 publications on photovoltaics and semiconductor device physics.

Sylvain Marsillac is a Professor of Electrical Engineering in the ECE Department at Old Dominion University, Norfolk (ODU). He received his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering (1996) from the University of Nantes (France). After receiving his Ph.D., he worked for the University of Nantes until 2000 as an Assistant Professor. He then worked as a Researcher for the University of Delaware (IEC) and the University of Hawaii from 2000 to 2004, before joining the University of Toledo in 2005. In 2011, he joined Old Dominion University where he is now leading the effort on Photovoltaic Science an Engineering. His current research interests include studying new inorganic materials for renewable energy applications, developing innovative tools for in-situ and real-time analysis, and developing novel architectures and techniques for the fabrication of flexible and high efficiency solar cells. He has published over 140 papers in peer reviewed journals and conference proceedings and has supervised over 20 Ph.D. and Masters students. Sylvain Marsillac has been very active in the organization of the IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, on the Organizing committee as well as on the Technical committee, where he served twice as the Area 2 (chalcogenide thin film solar cells) Chair. For more information, see http://ww2.odu.edu/~smarsill/vipv/

Angèle Reinders is an Associate Professor of Sustainable Energy and Design in the Department of Design, Production and Management of University of Twente, the Netherland. Besides this, she was part-time affiliated with the Design for Sustainability program of Delft University of Technology, the Netherland, till 2015. Her present research focuses on achieving a better integration of photovoltaic (PV) solar energy and other sustainable energy technologies in systems and products by new design approaches. She has practical experience with design-driven research on PV systems, PV modules, PV powered boats, building integrated PV and product integrated PV as well as PV in smart grids. Recently she established the energy center ARISE at the Faculty of Engineering Technology of University of Twente. She has published about 100 papers, edited two books, and is a co-founding editor of IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics. Angèle is intensively involved in the organization of the annual IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference and has a vast international experience and stayed at Fraunhofer ISE (Germany), World Bank (US), ENEA (Italy), Jakarta and Papua (Indonesia) and the Centre for Urban Energy (Canada) for her research. She holds an MSc in Experimental Physics and a PhD in Chemistry from Utrecht University in the field of monitoring and simulation of PV systems. She received her doctoral degree from the Faculty of Chemistry at Utrecht University in 1999. Her PhD dissertation covers the analysis and simulation of the field performance of photovoltaic solar energy systems. Angèle Reinders completed a master degree in Experimental Physics in 1993 at Utrecht University, specializing in material physics and energy physics.

Steven A. Ringel (SM97) was born in New Brunswick, NJ. He received the PhD degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1991, after receiving the MS and BS degrees from the Pennsylvania State University in 1986 and 1984, respectively. Dr. Ringel joined The Ohio State University as an assistant professor in 1991, was promoted to associate professor in 1997 and to full professor in 2000. In 2004 he was named as the Neal A. Smith Endowed Chair Professor of Electrical Engineering, and in 2006 he became director of the Ohio State Institute for Materials Research. Dr. Ringel’s research efforts are currently focused on advanced compound semiconductor photovoltaics, lattice-mismatched epitaxy, III-V/Si integration, defect engineering in heterostructures and defect characterization in a wide variety of semiconductors, particularly as applied to wide bandgap semiconductors such as GaN-based materials and devices, and generally to various metamorphic heterostructures. In these areas, Dr. Ringel has authored or co-authored more than 250 journal articles and conference proceedings and given more than 85 invited talks to date. Among his recognitions, Prof. Ringel received an National Science Foundation National Young Investigator Award in 1994, the Ohio State University Harrison Award for Excellence in Engineering Education and Research in 1999, six best paper awards, he is a Fellow of AAAS, he is an Associate Fellow of AIAA, he is a member of several academic, industrial and professional society boards and he has been involved with organizing conferences for many years, including the IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, the TMS Electronic Materials Conference, various symposia of the annual meetings of the Materials Research Society and the Electrochemical Society. Dr. Ringel is a co-founder of 4Power LLC, a startup company in photovoltaic technology, and he currently serves the IEEE as the chair of the EDS Photovoltaics Technical Committee. Dr. Ringel was chair of the joint EDS-LEOS chapter of the Columbus IEEE section from 1992-2006.

ANGUS ROCKETTis a Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois. He was President in 2011 of and is a Fellow of the American Vacuum Society. He was the 2012 Program Chair and is the 2016 General Chair of the IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference. He has held numerous other offices in the management of this and other international conferences. He was a rotating Research Program Administrator at the Office of Basic Energy Sciences at the U.S. Department of Energy in 2000. He holds a Sc.B. in Physics from Brown University (1980) and a Ph.D. in Materials Science from the University of Illinois (1986). He has won numerous awards for teaching and advising from the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois. His teaching has ranged from introductions to materials engineering for business and engineering students to senior and graduate courses on electronic materials (including a recent book The Materials Science of Semiconductors). His research has concerned ion-assisted growth of semiconductors and fundamental science of growth of materials by molecular beam epitaxy. This was extended to theoretical treatments of the same subject by lattice Monte Carlo and density functional theory methods. At the same time he worked on sputtered hard coatings deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering. He has studied the basic science of solar cell materials and the operation of solar cell devices for 28 years using virtually all of the common materials microchemical and microstructural analysis techniques from SIMS and TEM to STM and photoluminescence. He has also worked on self-assembled nanostructures, MEMS devices, silicide reactions for VLSI contacts, Si-Ge oxidation kinetics for gate dielectrics, superconducting cavity resonators as temperature probes, and optical spectroscopic analysis of combustion. He is an AVS Short Course Instructor for the Photovoltaics and Sputter Deposition of Thin Films short courses. He has also given short courses on thin film deposition processes and fundamentals of thin film solar cells at the IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, on characterization of photovoltaic materials at the Materials Research Society, and has given short courses on sputter depostion, thin films and photovoltaics in China, Mexico, Sweden, Israel, Brazil, Argentina, and elsewhere. He has published over 190 papers and has given many invited and plenary talks on subjects related to his research. Angus is also a program evaluator for the Accrediation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) and an associate editor of the Journal of Photovoltaics.

Mike Scarpulla is an Associate Professor at the University of Utah in the departments of Materials Science and Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering. Prior to joining the U in 2008, he received an Sc.B. with Honors from Brown University in 2000, worked at IBM Almaden from 2000-2001, pursued graduate studies at UC Berkeley from 2001-2006 earning MS and PhD degrees, and was a postdoc in MBE epitaxial integration of rare-earth pnictides with III-V semiconductors at UC Santa Barbara from 2006-2008. Mike’s work in and commitment to advancing the field of photovoltaics began with a project during graduate school using ion implantation and pulsed-laser melting (II-PLM) to synthesize epitaxial films of the world’s first multiband semiconductor: the alloy Zn1-xMnxTe1-yOy in which an intermediate band splits the fundamental band gap in two. The continuation of this work by the LBNL group led to the demonstration of functioning photovoltaic devices based on III-V multiband semiconductors. At Utah his research group focuses nearly exclusively on thin film photovoltaics. With his first student he theoretically investigated the concept of embedded dielectric nanoparticles for light trapping in ultra-thin c-Si cells. This effort also yielded an elucidation and investigation of the exact mode structure in planar waveguides with arbitrary loss in each layer and to the concept of equivalent deflection angle which clearly delineates antireflective from light trapping wavelength regimes of textured or sub-wavelength-structured approaches to light absorption enhancement. Mike’s group has ongoing work in laser annealing of CdTe and CIGSe materials for modifications of properties for device and manufacturing enhancements. They also pursue understanding of structural and electronic defects in CZT(S,Se) using especially electrical spectroscopies such as admittance spectroscopy and DLTS focusing on optical variants. Mike reviews for many journals and agencies, participates regularly in the Hands-On PV Experience for graduate students held at NREL annually, serves on the organizing committees of areas 1&2 of the IEEE PVSC and of SPIE conferences on laser processing for photovoltaics and advanced PV cell concepts. He has published >100 scholarly works with >1500 citations with an h-index of 20.

Jan Schmidt received his Ph.D. degree in physics in 1998 and the Habilitation degree (“venia legendi”) in physics in 2005, both from the Leibniz University of Hanover (LUH), Germany. From 1998 to 2000, he worked as a Humboldt Fellow at the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, and from 2000 to 2001 at the University of Stuttgart, Germany. Since 2001 he is leader of the Photovoltaics Materials Research group at the Institute for Solar Energy Research in Hamelin (ISFH), Germany, and since 2010 he is heading the Photovoltaics Department at ISFH. Since 2010, he is also a professor in physics at LUH, where he gives courses in semiconductor physics and renewable energies. His current research interests include the development of novel solar cell concepts and fabrication processes, with focus on heterojunctions, surface passivation, new characterization techniques for silicon materials and devices, and the analysis and manipulation of defects in mono- and multicrystalline silicon materials. He has authored and co-authored more than 120 refereed journal papers as well as 100 conference papers. He is scientific committee member for several international conferences and workshops in the field of photovoltaics.

Giovanni Spagnuolo was born in Salerno (Italy) on 12 September 1967. He received the Master degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of Salerno (Italy) in 1993 and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University "Federico II" of Naples in 1998. From November 1999 to December 2003 he was Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Salerno where, since January 1st, 2004 he is Associate Professor. Since 2010 he is Senior Member of the IEEE. Since January 2007 he is Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics. From 2008 to 2015 he has been serving as Guest Editor of five special issues of the IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, which are focused on photovoltaic and fuel cell systems. He is in the 2015 Thomson Reuters list of Highly Cited Researchers (http://highlycited.com). He is the local coordinator of three FP7 and H2020 research projects on sustainable mobility and on fuel cell diagnosis. He is the coordinator of four research contracts financed by National Semiconductors Corporation in Santa Clara (USA), Bitron Industrie S.p.A. (TO-Italy) and Matrix S.r.l. in Conversano (BA-Italy) focused on photovoltaic power processing systems. He is the coordinator of research projects on renewable energy systems financed by the Italian Government, by the Campania Region and by the University of Salerno. He is co-author of six international patents, three of them owned by ABB and Bitron, on switching converters and control of photovoltaic systems. He was member of the Organizing Committee, of the Scientific Committee and of the Steering Committee of the following IEEE conferences: ISIE 2010, Electrimacs 2011, EPE-PEMC 2012, ISIE 2012, ICIT 2013, Electrimacs 2014, ICIT 2014, IECON 2014, ICCEP 2015, POWERENG 2015. He organized many Special Sessions on photovoltaic systems in the frame of IEEE international conferences. He was invited as a plenary lecturer at IEEE ETFA 2009, Electrimacs 2011 and 2012 Italian Workshop on Neural Networks. From October 2012 to November 2014 he was Chairman of the "Technical Committee on Renewable Energy Systems" of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society. Since January 2011 he is member of the Publications Committee of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society. Since May 2014 he is member of the IMACS Technical Committee on Modeling and Simulation of Electrical Machines.

Harry Atwater is currently Howard Hughes Professor and Professor of Applied Physics and Materials Science at the California Institute of Technology. His research interests center around two interwoven research themes: photovoltaics and solar energy; and plasmonics and optical metamaterials. Atwater and his group have been active in photovoltaics research for more than 20 years. Recently they have created new photovoltaic devices, including the silicon wire array solar cell, and layer-transferred fabrication approaches to III-V semiconductor III-V and multijunction cells, as well as making advances in plasmonic light absorber structures for III-V compound and silicon thin films. He is an early pioneer in surface plasmon photonics; he gave the name to the field of plasmonics in 2001. He has authored or co-authored over 200 publications, and his group’s developments in the solar and plasmonics field have been featured in Scientific American and in research papers in Science, Nature Materials, Nature Photonics and Advanced Materials. He currently serves as as Director of the DOE Energy Frontier Research Center on Light-Matter Interactions in Solar Energy Conversion (http://lmi.caltech.edu) and was recently named Director of the Resnick Institute for Science, Energy and Sustainability, http://resnick.caltech.edu/, Caltech's largest endowed research program focused on energy. Atwater is founder and chief technical advisor for Alta Devices, a venture-backed company in Santa Clara, CA developing a transformational high efficiency/low cost photovoltaics technology, and Aonex Corporation, a compound semiconductor materials company. He has also served an editorial board member for Surface Review and Letters. Professor Atwater has consulted extensively for industry and government, and has actively served the materials community in various capacities, including Material Research Society Meeting Chair (1997), Materials Research Society President (2000), AVS Electronic Materials and Processing Division Chair (1999), and Board of Trustees of the Gordon Research Conferences. In 2008, he served as Chair for the Gordon Research Conference on Plasmonics.

Allen Barnett (F) received his M.S. and B.S. degrees from the University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, and his Ph. D. from Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, all in Electrical Engineering. He joined the School of Photovoltaics and Renewable Energy Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2052 Australia as Professor of Advanced Photovoltaics in September 2011. At UNSW his research is focused on new high efficiency solar cell modules; thin crystalline silicon (20+%) and tandem solar cells on silicon (30+%). He joined the University of Delaware in 1976 as Director of the Institute of Energy Conversion and Professor of Electrical Engineering. He left UD in 1993 to devote full time to AstroPower, Inc, which became the largest independent solar cell manufacturer and the 4th largest in the World. He returned to UD in 2003 and was Executive Director, Solar Power Program; Research Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; and Senior Policy Fellow, Center for Energy and Environmental Policy at the University of Delaware, Newark Delaware. Barnett has supervised 27 Ph.D. theses including 7 Ph.D.s and 3 M.S. degrees completed in 2011. He currently supervises 13 Ph.D. students. He is a Fellow of the IEEE. he received the IEEE William R. Cherry Award for outstanding contributions to the advancement of photovoltaic science and technology and the Karl W. Böer Solar Energy Medal of Merit. He is on committees for the two largest photovoltaic conferences. he has more than 290 publications, 28 U.S. patents and 7 R&D 100 Awards for the new industrial products. He actively consults for government agencies, institutional investors, and private companies. He was named one of "The 50 Most Influential Delawareans (State of Delaware) of the Past 50 Years" in 2012.

Dr. Andreas W. Bett received the Dipl. Degree in physics and the degree in mathematics from the Albert Ludwigs-University, Freiburg, Germany in 1988 and 1989, respectively. The PhD degree in physics was obtained from the University in Konstanz, Germany in 1992. He joined the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, ISE in Freiburg, Germany in 1987. In 1993 he became the head of the group “III-V – epitaxy and solar cells”. Since 2007 he is head of the division “Materials – Solar Cells and Technology” and since 2009 he is deputy director of the institute. A part of his division is working on R&D for solar silicon materials. The research includes crystallization processes based on Czochralski, float-zone and vertical gradient freeze methods. The development of new wafering processes and epitaxial growth of Si to fabricate crystalline thin-film Silicon solar cells are also in the focus of this work. His own research was devoted to III-V semiconductor materials, characterization, solar cells and applications. He published more than 150 papers on these topics. Together with his team he developed the metamorphic growth concept and in 2009 he succeeded to overcome the 41 % efficiency barrier using a metamorphic GaInP/GaInAs/Ge triple-junction solar cell. This achievement was recognized when he was awarded with the 17th European Becquerel Prize for outstanding merits in photovoltaics in 2009. He contributed also on the development of the concentrator module and system technology. In an international effort he introduced together with colleagues from the Ioffe-Institute the FLATCON-concept. Moreover, later he industrialized this concept through co-founding the company Concentrix Solar, today Soitec Solar. In 2012 this achievement was honored when he and Hansjoerg Lerchenmueller were awarded with the high-ranked German Environmental Prize of the DBU for the outstanding contribution to commercialize the CPV technology. While he performs the research on the CPV system he worked to improve the reliability on module level and he became an acitve member in the IEC TC82 WG7 for standardization of CPV technologies. Further research was performed on the characterization techniques for multi-junction solar cells. This research includes new measurement methods and procedures to calibrate multi-junction solar cells and concentrator solar cells. Dr. Bett is also a member of the European PV Platform WG3 and contributes to the Strategic Research Agenda of Europe. He has organised several international conferences on the topic of CPV and TPV. He served in many scientific committees, among them for the International CPV conference, IEEE-PVSC EC-PVSEC, WCPEC.

David Cahen, born in the Netherlands, is a professor in the Materials and Interfaces department at the Weizmann Institute of Science, WIS, which he chaired between 2007-2012. Born and raised in the Netherlands, he completed a B.Sc. in chemistry & physics at the Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem (HUJI), a Ph.D. in materials chemistry at Northwestern Univ., and did postdoctoral research in biophysics of photosynthesis at HUJI and WIS. He then joined the WIS, starting work on photoelectrochemical and solid-state solar cells. This expanded into studying chemical aspects of electronic materials and devices, including fundamental chemical limits to device miniaturization and device stability. The latter provided significant scientific bases for practical development of 2nd generation solar cells. In parallel he explored how and when defects in materials can actually improve material quality and device performance. His solar cell interests led to work on hybrid molecular/non-molecular materials and interfaces, which evolved into other present activities, proteins as “dopable” electronic materials. Recent honors include the 2008 Landau Prize for Chemistry and the 2012 Israel Chem, Soc. Prize for excellence, for research on alternative energy sources. A fellow of the AVS and the MRS, he serves on various advisory committees on science and science education, and advises several energy-related companies and initiatives. He directs the WIS’ campus-wide Alternative Sustainable Energy Research Initiative and holds the Rowland and Sylvia Schaefer Professorial Chair in Energy Research. With D. Ginley he edited the MRS/Cambridge Un. Press textbook on Fundamentals of Materials for Energy and Environmental Sustainability.

Andres Cuevas (SM ’96) received the M. Eng. and Ph.D. degrees from the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain, in 1976 and 1980, respectively. He was been an Associate Professor at the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid and a Fulbright Fellow at Stanford University. In 1993 he joined The Australian National University, where he is currently a Professor of engineering. His contributions to education have included numerous courses on electronic circuits, semiconductor devices, photovoltaic technology, solar cell fundamentals and energy resources. He has been convenor of graduate and undergraduate research programs, Associate Dean and, between 2007 and 2010, Head of the ANU School of Engineering. He has coauthored approximately 100 journal and 200 conference papers on a range of topics related to silicon solar cell technology. His early work on bifacial solar cells led to the invention of the albedo-collecting photovoltaic module and was instrumental in the establishment of the first Spanish PV company, Isofoton S.A. At Stanford University he developed a front-contacted device that reached a conversion efficiency of 26%. His research on the theoretical understanding and the experimental optimization of highly doped electron and hole collector regions has significantly contributed to the advancement of silicon solar cell technology. Breaking with a long tradition, in 1988 he demonstrated a 19% efficient thick-collector solar cell. Research on heavily doped silicon has been complemented in later years with measurements of energy bandgap narrowing and surface recombination velocity of phosphorus and boron diffused regions, together with simple models to analyse them. Professor Cuevas has collaborated extensively as a visiting Professor at key research institutes in France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the US. He collaborated with Ron Sinton in the development of Quasi-Steady-State Photoconductance and Voltage techniques, which have permitted an unprecedented progress in the understanding of silicon materials and interfaces. With co-workers, he has clarified important physical effects that occur in PV silicon materials, including carrier trapping, light-induced degradation and recombination due to metal contaminants and defects. His research group at the ANU was the first to demonstrate carrier lifetimes above one millisecond in multicrystalline silicon, achieving a conversion efficiency of 18.6% in 1999. Work on surface passivation by thermal oxidation and PECVD silicon nitride deposition led to world-class results and permitted the empirical determination of an upper limit to intrinsic carrier recombination in silicon. His current research interests include low purity compensated silicon materials, the passivation of silicon surfaces using dielectric coatings, and the development of advanced silicon solar cells, including their theoretical modeling.

Dr. Neelkanth G. Dhere is currently Program Director, Florida Solar Energy Center, University of Central Florida. Earlier he worked at Solar Energy Research Institute (NREL), Golden, CO, Instituto Militar de Engenharia, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, India. Dr. Dhere holds one patent and has published two Book Chapters, and >200 papers. Dr. Dhere is the Eldest Ph. D. in the Family Holding Guinness Book World Record for Most (All Five Members, Three Brothers and Two Sisters All Born to the Same Parents) Doctorates. He is Fellow, American Vacuum Society, Founder-President and Emeritus Member, Brazilian Vacuum Society.

Dr. Alex Freundlich is a Research Professor of Physics with a joint appointment in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Houston. He is the founder and the leader of the Photovoltaics and Nanostructures Laboratories at the Center for Advanced Materials, at the University of Houston. Professor Freundlich has over twenty years of experience in the development of thin film semiconductors and high efficiency solar cells. He holds a BS (1981) a MS (1984) and a Ph.D.(1989) from University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis. Prior to joining in fall of 1994 the faculty at the University of Houston, Prof. Freundlich was a senior permanent member of the Corps of Researchers at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). Alex serves and has served on numerous select Federal, Industry and International expert panels and committees. Alex holds 6 US patents in advanced solar cell devices. He has authored/co-authored over 200 technical publications and is frequent invited/plenary speaker at national and international conferences. He currently serves on the editorial board of “Recent Patents in Nanotechnology” and “Recent Patents in Electrical Engineering”. During his career at CNRS and the University of Houston Professor Freundlich has trained numerous graduate students and researchers, some of whom have grown to become leading experts in academia and the private sector. Alex is affiliated with the American Association for Advancement in Science (AAAS), the American Physical Society (APS), The Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) , the National Space Society (NSS) and the Material Research Society (MRS).

Bio: David S. Ginger earned dual B.S. degrees in chemistry and physics at Indiana University in 1997 with departmental honors and highest distinction, performing undergraduate research with Victor E. Viola. He received a British Marshall Scholarship and an NSF Graduate Fellowship and completed his Ph.D. in physics with Neil C. Greenham in the Optoelectronics group at the University of Cambridge (UK) in 2001. After a joint NIH and DuPont Postdoctoral Fellowship at Northwestern University in Chad Mirkin's lab, he joined the faculty at the University of Washington in Seattle where he is currently the Alvin L. and Verla R. Kwiram Endowed Professor in Chemistry, Washington Research Foundation Distinguished Scholar in Clean Energy, and Adjunct Professor of Physics, and serves as the Associate Director of the Washington state funded UW Clean Energy Institute. He is an elected fellow of the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) and has been named a Research Corporation Cottrell Scholar, a Research Corporation Scialog Fellow in solar energy conversion, an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellow, a Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar, and has received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, and the ACS Unilever Award in Colloid and Surfactant Science. He is the 2012 recipient of the Burton Medal of the Microscopy Society of America, and participated in the 2012-2013 class of the Defense Science Study Group. His research centers on the physical chemistry of nanostructured materials with applications in optoelectronics, energy and sensing, and his group makes use of techniques ranging from scanning probe microscopy to optical spectroscopy. He is also an Associate Editor at the ACS journal Chemical Reviews. Ginger can be reached at the University of Washington, Department of Chemistry,Box 351700, Seattle, WA 98195-1700, USA; tel. 206-685-2331; fax. 206-685-8665; email ginger@chem.washington.edu and URL http://faculty.washington.edu/dginger/.

Dr. Ivan Gordon received his Master Degree in Physics in 1997 from the University of Leuven (KUL), Belgium. He did his PhD research in the field of novel magnetic materials for sensor applications and obtained his PhD Degree from the University of Leuven in February 2002. He started to work at imec in June 2003 in the photovoltaics department, where he is currently the head of the Silicon Solar Cells and Modules (SSCM) group, working on various wafer-based silicon solar cell concepts (e.g. PERC, PERT, IBC) and advanced module concepts for thin c-Si wafer-based cells. Since 2008, he is associate editor for the international scientific journal Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells. Since 2011, he is also associate editor for the IEEE Journal on Photovoltaics. He has authored and co-authored more than 140 journal and conference papers.

L. Jay Guo is a professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan, with joint appointment in Mechanical Engineering, Macromolecular Science and Engineering, and Applied Physics. He has over 130 refereed journal publications. His group’s researches include polymer-based photonic devices and sensor applications, organic and hybrid photovoltaics, plasmonic nanophotonics/metamaterials, nanoimprint-based and roll to roll nanomanufacturing technologies. He received PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Minnesota in 1997.

Woo Kyoung Kim is an Associate Professor in the School of Chemical Engineering at Yeungnam University, Korea. He received his B.S. degree in chemical engineering from Sung Kyung Kwan University (1994), M.S. degree in chemical engineering from Seoul National University (1996) and Ph.D. degree in chemical engineering from the University of Florida (2006). He also spent a year as a postdoc at the Institute of Energy Conversion in the University of Delaware. He has continuously worked on CIGS-based thin film photovoltaic materials and processes for 14 years. His current research focuses on the in-situ study of reaction pathways of CIGS and CZTS absorbers mainly by using HT-XRD, and flexible PV-related topics. Prof. Kim is an author of over 40 technical papers in PV area, 10 patents and has been an invited speaker at several international conferences including MRS, PVSEC, GPVC and WCCE

Antonio Martí was born in Madrid (Spain) in 1965. He received the M. Sc. degree in Physics in 1987 by the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. In 1992 he received his Ph.D by the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid in 1992 and became Chair Professor in Electronics in 2007 at this University. All his research activity, until present, has been devoted to photovoltaics (PV) and taken place at the Instituto de Energía Solar. His major activity in PV has been devoted to the study of its fundamentals, not only theoretically, but also studying, evaluating and developing the technology for taking them to practice. In 1997 he proposed, together with Prof. A. Luque, the intermediate band solar cell, a concept conceived to convert efficiently into electricity the energy of below bandgap photons and investigating quantum dots, for example, as the means to take this idea to practice. He received in 2000 one of prizes of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid to the best young researcher. He has also several times in the scientific committee of some PV conferences such as the European PV Specialist Conference and Exhibition and the IEEE PV Specialist Conference. He teaches the Fundamentals of Solar Cells at his University. He has authored or coauthored more than 60 papers in peer reviewed journals and several chapters in books.

Giovanni Petrone was born in Salerno (Italy) in 1975. He received the M. Sc degree (with honours) in Electronic Engineering from the University of Salerno in 2001 and the Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Napoli "Federico II" in 2004. Since March 2001 he collaborates with the Department of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science of the University of Salerno. He joined to the same Department as Assistant Professor in 2005 where he teaches Basic Circuit Theory and Power Electronic Circuits for Renewable Energy Sources. He is member of the College of the Professors of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Salerno for the Ph.D. degree Information Engineering. His main research interests are in the analysis and design of switching converters for low power applications, tolerance analysis of electronic circuits, non-linear control techniques. His studies have been mainly focused on photovoltaic, fuel cell and wind systems. He carried out research activity at the Department of Electronics Engineering and Automatic of University of Rovira I Virgili in Tarragona (Spain) in July 2011 and at the KDEE-Department of University of Kassel (Germany) in April 2010 and October 2011. He has been coordinator of four national research projects focused on power electronics for renewable energy sources. He is co-author of several patents developed in the frame of research projects with international companies leaders in the field of electronics for PV applications. Since 2009 he is member of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society - Technical Committee on Renewable Energy Systems. He is co-author of 80 scientific papers published in international journals and in the proceedings of international symposia. He is reviewer, within his area of expertise, for several IEEE journals and conferences. He has been peer review for the Slovak Research and Development Agency in the years 2006-2007. He has been Guest Editor of two special issues of the IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics and Track Co-Chair of four special sessions in IEEE international conferences mainly focused on photovoltaic systems.

Prof. Dr. Michael Powalla is Head of the Photovoltaics Division and Member of the Board at Zentrum für Sonnenenergie- und Wasserstoff-Forschung Baden-Württemberg (Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research, ZSW) in Stuttgart, Germany.

He holds a professorship for thin-film photovoltaics at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), located at the Light Technology Institute at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology.

Prof. Powalla has been working in the field of thin-film photovoltaics since 1991. He worked with silicides, transparent conductive oxides, metals, different nano materials and organic materials with a focus on CIGS thin-film solar cells, different preparation methods and up scaling issues.

After studying physics and finishing his PhD in electrical engineering, he became Head of the Department Photovoltaics: Materials Research (MAT) at ZSW Stuttgart. From 2007 through 2011, he was Managing Director of Würth Elektronik Research GmbH. In 2008, he was appointed Head of Photovoltaics Division and Member of the Board at ZSW. In this position, he is also responsible for photovoltaic module and system integration. Under his leadership, the ZSW researchers achieved the world record for thin-film solar cells with an efficiency of 20.3 percent in July 2010 for a CIGS cell with a size of 0.5 square centimeters.

Prof. Powalla’s activities at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) began 2003 with a regular series of lectures in photovoltaics at the then so-called University of Karlsruhe, Department of Mechanical Engineering. He is also involved in the Karlsruhe School of Optics and Photonics (KSOP), the Center for Functional Nanostructures (CFN) at KIT and the Shared Research Group on “Electronic properties of nano-scaled solar cells” at KIT.

He has been project leader and coordinator of numerous national and international projects (e.g. German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Federal Ministry for the Environment BMBF, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU)): He was involved in the EUROCIS-II program as well as in the EU programs FP4 through FP7.

Prof. Powalla is a renowned expert in thin-film photovoltaics. His publications number about 210 in journals and conference proceedings, and he has held more than 17 invited talks at international conferences and colloquia since 2003. He is a member of the Scientific Committee of the European Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion (EU-PVSEC).

William N. Shafarman is a Senior Scientist at the Institute of Energy Conversion at the University of Delaware where he also has a secondary appointment as Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering. He received his B.S. degree in physics from the University of Delaware and his Ph.D. degree in physics from the University of Rochester. Dr. Shafarman's current research focuses on thin film deposition and the fabrication and analysis of polycrystalline thin film photovoltaics with a particular emphasis on copper indium diselenide (CIS) and related alloys. In this work, he has been principle investigator on many government and industrial contracts and research advisor to graduate students doing doctoral research in photovoltaics. He has been a member and team leader of the National CIS R&D Team and has collaborated extensively with many other university and industrial research groups. Dr. Shafarman is an author of over 150 technical publications, 2 book chapters, and 2 patents, has been an invited or plenary speaker at numerous conferences, and has served on organizing and program committees for several international conferences.

Ronald A. Sinton received his Ph.D in Applied Physics from Stanford University in 1987, following a B.S. from the University of Colorado in 1981.  After a Research Associate position at Stanford, he was a founding member of SunPower Corp. before starting Sinton Instruments in 1992.

His early technical work at Stanford University included the demonstration of 28%-efficient silicon concentrator solar cells, and work on the device physics of high-injection solar cells including detailed device modeling, measurements of Auger recombination and carrier mobilities, the development of advanced passivation and emitter technologies, test and measurement equipment for carrier lifetime and efficiency measurements, and studies of solar-cell efficiency vs. design and process complexity. This led to simplified solar cell designs with efficiency comparable to the best devices.  At SunPower, these technologies were moved towards manufacturing feasibility and commercialization.

At Sinton Instruments, the focus shifted first to consulting on projects such as the development of a NASA solar-power aircraft that exceeded 29,600 m in altitude and innovations leading to novel test and measurement instruments.  The company now specializes in carrier lifetime measurements on silicon bricks, ingots, and wafers, solar cell IV testers, and solar module testers.  Many of the instruments that are now quite standard within the industry were developed at Sinton Instruments, including the QSSPC method for studying bulk lifetime and surface passivations in wafers (1995), the standard methods for bulk lifetime measurements in ingots and bricks (2004), the Suns-V_oc technique (1995), as well as the constant-charge method for accurately measuring high-efficiency n-type solar cells and modules in production(2005).  These tools are in use at over 300 institutions and production facilities worldwide. Data from Sinton carrier-lifetime testers has been presented or cited in over 1000 scientific publications, creating a de-facto standard for lifetime measurements in silicon and a lifetime of fruitful collaborations with scientists, labs, and companies worldwide.  These lifetime-test methods were incorporated into a SEMI Standard PV-13.  Each of these techniques is solidly based on silicon device physics principles, facilitating extensive characterization results for studying the device physics of surface passivations and bulk lifetime supporting the growth of the silicon solar cell industry.

Dr. Sinton has coauthored over 100 publications in solar cell device physics and technology, 7 patents, and has participated in program committees for 4 conference series and reviews for 5 journals. 

 

 

 

James R. Sites studies the device physics of low–cost polycrystalline thin-film solar cells.  His photovoltaics lab makes precision electrical and optical measurements on solar cells fabricated by several partners in the U.S. and abroad. The goals are to separate the various solar-cell losses, to explain the losses on a fundamental basis, and to suggest strategies for improved solar–cell performance.  Prof. Sites has an increasing leadership role in the thin–film solar–cell community.  He has published 160 papers; 42 of his students have completed their M.S. degree and 26 their Ph.D. He is co-author of the chapter on CdTe in the Handbook of Photovoltaic Science and Engineering.

Dr. Franky So is a University of Florida Research Foundation Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Florida.  He received his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California. Dr. So is a Fellow of SPIE. His research interest is in the area of organic light emitting diodes, polymer solar cells and infrared sensors. He is an Associate Editor of IEEE Journal of Display Technology, SPIE Journal of Photonics for Energy and Materials Science and Engineering Reports. He has over 70 journal publications, 60 issued patents and over 30 patent applications pending. He has been the conference chair of the SPIE OLED Symposium since 2006. Dr. So received many awards and recognitions for his accomplishments. While at Motorola, he was given the Distinguished Innovator and the Master Innovator Awards. At the University of Florida, he was given the Innovation Award, the MSE Department Faculty Excellence Award. In 2011, he was named the University of Florida Research Foundation Professor. Working on a project sponsored by the Department of Energy, he was given the Significant Achievement Award in Solid State Lighting in 2009 and 2010.

Wilhelm Warta studied Physics in Würzburg and Stuttgart and received his PhD from the University of Stuttgart in 1985. He then joined the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, Freiburg, starting with research on excess carrier recombination in silicon. His research interests comprise development of characterization techniques and application for crystalline silicon materials and solar cells, silicon material properties and impact on solar cell performance, simulation of solar cells and cell processing as well as solar cell calibration with highest precision. At present, he is Department Head, Characterization and Simulation/CalLab in the Division Silicon Solar Cells – Development and Characterization.at the Fraunhofer ISE. He is author or co-author of more than 250 papers in reviewed journals and conferences.

Ahmed Faheem Zobaa (M’02-SM’04) received the B.Sc.(Hons.), M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical power and machines from Cairo University, Giza, Egypt, in 1992, 1997, and 2002, respectively. From 2007 to 2010, he was a Senior Lecturer in renewable energy with the University of Exeter, Cornwall, U.K. He was also an Instructor from 1992 to 1997, a Teaching Assistant from 1997 to 2002, and an Assistant Professor from 2003 to April 2008 with the Department of Electrical Power and Machines and the Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, where he has also been an Associate Professor since April 2008. Currently, he is also a Senior Lecturer in power systems with Brunel University, Uxbridge, U.K. His main areas of expertise are lighting applications, power quality, ( marine) renewable energy systems, grid integration, smart grids and energy management.

     Dr. Zobaa is an Editor-in-Chief for the International Journal of Renewable Energy Technology. He is also an Editorial Board member, Editor, Associate Editor, and Editorial Advisory Board member for many international journals. He is a registered Chartered Engineer, Chartered Energy Engineer, European Engineer, and International Professional Engineer. He is also a registered member of the Engineering Council U.K., Egypt Syndicate of Engineers, and the Egyptian Society of Engineers. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, the Energy Institute of U.K., the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers and the Higher Education Academy of U.K. He is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He is a member of the International Solar Energy Society, the European Society for Engineering Education, the European Power Electronics and Drives Association, the British Institute of Energy Economics, and the IEEE Standards Association.

 

Keith Emery received his M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Michigan State University in 1979. In 1979 and 1982 he worked at Colorado State University fabricating and characterizing Silicon-oxy-nitride MOS capacitors using laser or electron beam chemical vapor deposition and Ion Beam sputtered ITO films. In 1980 he joined NREL (SERI at the time), where he established the PV cell performance characterization laboratory. He designed, developed, and implemented the hardware, software, and procedures to measure the current-versus-voltage characteristics as a function of temperature, spectrum, and intensity for single- or multijunction cells or modules and the efficiency as accurately as technically possible. The laboratory is ISO 17025-accredited as a calibration laboratory for primary reference cells, secondary reference cells and secondary modules. The group is also ISO 9001 accredited for all released data. The group averages about 200 cell calibrations per month and 250 module measurements per month in support of the terrestrial PV community. The lab is only one of 3 PV cell and module calibration laboratories in world with proven competence in evaluating any existing or new PV technology. The lessons learned, measurement issues, solar simulation and PV performance measurement technology are communicated to individuals, groups and the PV community at large.. The author has also been active in accurate modeling of the solar spectra to extend the spectra outside the measured wavelength range. Emery has been recognized for his research accomplishment and leadership through several awards, including, the 2007 Paul Rappaport Award for contributions to Photovoltaics, 2009 NREL Harold M. Hubbard Award for "Seminal contributions to the measurement science of photovoltaic (PV) devices and modules," the 2012 World Renewable Energy Congress / Network Pioneer Award for "Outstanding contributions to renewable energy over many years and use of renewable energy in their own daily life", and the 2013 IEEE PVSC William R. Cherry Award. He has been listed in 2014 and 2015 by Thomson Reuters as a highly cited researcher. Emery has over 345 peer reviewed papers and published conference presentations and written 4 book chapters and one patent for an automated light beam induced current measurement system. He is co-editor of the journals Progress in Photovoltaics and Renewable Energy. He is active in ASTM and IEC PV standards development and has participated in ISO AM0 standards development and is a senior member of IEEE.

Ben Kroposki is the Director of the Power Systems Engineering Center at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) where he leads NREL’s strategic research in the design, planning and operations of electrical power systems. He received his BS and MS in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech and PhD from the Colorado School of Mines. His expertise is in the design, testing, and integration of renewable and distributed power systems and has more than 100 publications in these areas. As an IEEE Fellow, Dr. Kroposki was recognized for his leadership in renewable and distributed energy systems integration. He has served on a number of IEEE technical standards working groups and chaired IEEE 1547.4, the first international standard on microgrids. He has also served as an editor for IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy, and IEEE Power & Energy Magazine.

Rommel Noufi received his Ph.D. in Analytical/Physical chemistry from the University of Texas, at Austin in 1978. He joined the Rockwell international Science Center for two years as a member of the technical staff. In 1980 he joined NREL (SERI at the time) as a senior scientist, where he is currently serving as a principal scientist and group manger in thin film Photovoltaics. He has established a leading position in the interdisciplinary field of material science of thin film electronic materials and devices, with emphasis on thin film PV solar cells. He has developed synergism of skills in the field of PV device physics, thin film fabrication and characterization, vacuum technology, photoelectrochemistry, electrodeposition, and conducting polymer. He has lead a team of scientists, engineers, in the design and fabrication of polycrystalline thin film solar cells based on CIGS and CdTe which holds world record conversion efficiency. He also, spent 15 months sabbatical with a CIGS thin film PV start-up company in Silicon Valley serving as the VP for R&D and help the company move the technology from development to manufacturing. Currently he has Consulting Professor appointment in the material science and engineering department, at Stanford University. He also has extensive experience in project management of a number of CRADA and WFO projects through his career at NREL, as well as Technology Transfer and collaboration with Industry. Rommel has been recognized for his research accomplishment and leadership through several awards, including, “Distinguished Innovator Award 2010” at NREL, H.M. Hubbard Award in recognition of outstanding leadership and initiative in science and technology management, and in furthering NREL as the nation’s foremost renewable energy laboratory. Rommel has over 170 papers in interdisciplinary. He is co-editor of five (5) professional society conference proceedings, 8 issued NREL Patents, of which 6 are licensed to industry, and numerous invited talks/ lectures in the US and abroad on the subject of Thin Film PV.

Christopher Wronski received a B.Sc in Physics in 1960 and Ph.D in 1963 from Imperial College, London University. He is currentlyLeonhard Professor Emeritus in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Pennsylvania State University from 1987 to 2005. His contributions to photovoltaics began in 1974 at RCA David Sarnoff Research Laboratories, with work carried out with David Carlson that led to the invention and development of thin film amorphous silicon solar cells. In 1976, he discovered with David Staebler, the reversible, light-induced changes in the optoelectronic properties in amorphous silicon known as the Staebler-Wronksi Effect. This effect, which results from the introduction of metastable defects, is still not only of great technological but also scientific interest. While at RCA and subsequently at Exxon Research Laboratories he continued to make contributions to the development of efficient solar cells, understanding of their device physics and the nature of the defects in hydrogenated amorphous silicon. This included his collaboration in demonstrating and quantifying the large improvements possible in short cicuit currents from the optical enhancement obtained with texturized surfaces. At Penn State he developed several novel techniques for characterization of the optoelectronic properties hydrogenated amorphous silicon solar cells and clearly established the contributions of multiple defects to the Staebler-Wronski effect. The collaborative research with Professor Rob Collins, where for the first time the characterization of growth and microstructure is carried out in real-time, has enabled materials and solar cells to be significantly improved. This understanding and control of the more ordered structure in “protocrystalline” amorphous materials has been applied in a more systematic development of improved solar cells. Professor Wronski has over 300 publications on amorphous materials and their devices. In 1984 Professor Wronksi received the IEEE Morris N. Liebmann Memorial Award for “crucial contributions to the use of amorphous silicon in low cost, high performance photovoltaic solar cells.” In 2000 he received the IEEE W Cherry Award for “Outstanding contributions to photovoltaic science and technology”. Since his retirement he has continued to visit and present lectures at industrial, government, and university laboratories as well as participate in their research activities.