Invited Speakers

Helmholtz- Zentrum Berlin

University of Rome Tor Vergata

Prof. Francesca Brunetti, FRSC, received her PhD in Telecommunications and Microelectronics from the University of Rome Tor Vergata in 2005. In 2005, she was awarded of a Marie Curie Individual Fellowship spent in the Institute for Nanoelectronics of the Technical University of Munich, Germany. In 2006 she became researcher in the Department of Electronic Engineering of the University of Rome Tor Vergata, and since 2018, she is associated professor at the same Department.

Cofounder of the Centre for Hybrid and Organic Solar Energy at the University of Rome Tor Vergata (CHOSE, www.chose.it) her current research is focused on the analysis, design and manufacture of electronic and optoelectronic devices through the use of organic semiconductors and perovskites realized on rigid and flexible substrates. In particular, she is working third-generation organic solar cells on flexible substrates, flexible perovskite solar cells and large area modules. Recently, she started an activity on the realization of supercapacitors on flexible and recyclable substrates, among which paper and their integration with photovoltaic devices (photocopacitors). Coordinator of several national and international projects, she is fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and Associated Editor of “Sustainable Energy and Fuels” a Royal Society of Chemistry Journal focused on renewables. She is the current director of CHOSE.

Chulalongkorn University

Dr. Rongrong Cheacharoen is a Research Professor at the Metallurgy and Materials Science Research Institute (MMRI) of Chulalongkorn University. She received her Bachelor of Science (summa cum laude) in Materials Science and Engineering from Northwestern University. Afterwards, she obtained her Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in Materials Science and Engineering from Stanford University in 2018. Her PhD work was on understanding degradation and improving stability via encapsulation of perovskite solar cells, which enabled them to pass several tests under IEC 61215 for the first time. Currently, her research focuses on sustainable materials development as well as device engineering to improve the stability of perovskite solar cells and rechargeable batteries. She is one of the recent Green Talents Awardees of 2021 by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. She also serves on the Editorial Board of Journal of Metals, Materials and Minerals.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Joseph Berry (@joe_jberry) is a senior research fellow at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory working on halide perovskite solar cells. His PhD for work was on spin transport and physics in semiconductor heterostructures from Penn State University.  His efforts at NREL emphasize relating basic interfacial properties to technologically relevant device level behaviors in traditional and novel semiconductor heterostructures including oxides, organics and most recently hybrid semiconducting materials. He leads the US Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technology Office’s SETO core technology program related to metal halide perovskite photovoltaics at NREL. He is also a member of the University of Colorado Boulder Physics Department working on basic aspects of organic-inorganic hybrid material and semiconductors as principle investigator on the NREL lead Department of Energy, Center for Hybrid Organic Inorganic Semiconductors for Energy (CHOISE) Energy Frontier Research Center.

CEA

University of Hong Kong

Aleksandra B. Djurišić obtained Ph. D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the School of Electrical Engineering, the University of Belgrade in 1997. She joined the Dept. of Physics at the University of Hong Kong in 2003. Her research interests include nano-, perovskite, and organic materials, and their various applications.

Southern Denmark University

Vida Engmann obtained her Dr. rer. nat. in 2014 from Ilmenau University of Technology, Germany. In 2014 she joined the University of Southern Denmark, where she was in 2020 appointed associate professor. Her research focuses on bioinspired approaches to the stabilization of organic semiconductor thin films and energy devices. For her work on additive-assisted stabilization, she received 2019 L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science award, and 2020 International Rising Talent award. In 2020 she was awarded Carlsberg Young Researcher Fellowship, and in 2021 Independent Research Fund Denmark Sapere Aude grant. She is a member of SDU Committee on diversity and equality, and editorial board member of IOP Journal of Physics: Materials.

University of Michigan

Stephen R. Forrest is the Peter A. Franken Distinguished University Professor and Paul G. Goebel Professor of Electrical Engineering, Physics and Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan. Education:  B. A. Physics, 1972, University of California, MSc and PhD Physics in 1974 and 1979, University of Michigan. In 1985, Prof. Forrest joined the Electrical Engineering and Materials Science Departments at USC. In 1992, Prof. Forrest became the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Electrical Engineering at Princeton University where he chaired the department from 1997 to 2001. In 2006, he rejoined the University of Michigan as Vice President for Research where he served until 2014.  He is a Fellow of the APS, IEEE and OSA and a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Inventors. He is co-founder or founding participant of Sensors Unlimited, Epitaxx, Inc., NanoFlex Power Corp., Universal Display Corp. (NASDAQ: OLED), Heat2Power, and Apogee Photonics, Inc., and has served on the Board of Directors and the Growth Technology Advisory Board of Applied Materials.  He is past Chairman of the Board of the University Musical Society, from 2009-2012 was Chairman of the Board of Ann Arbor SPARK, and serves on the Board of Governors of the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology where he holds an honorary doctorate.

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)

Sofiia Kosar is a Postdoctoral Fellow in KAUST Photovoltaics Laboratory (KPV LAB) at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), working under the supervision of Prof. Stefaan De Wolf. Sofiia obtained her PhD in 2022 from Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) where she worked on imaging nanoscale defects in halide perovskite thin films with time-resolved photoemission electron microscopy. Her current research focuses on microstructural characterization of halide perovskites fabricated using scalable methods and understanding microscopic mechanisms of their degradation. She specifically focuses on microscopic characterization that involves mapping of morphological, compositional and opto-electronic properties of halide perovskites. Apart from imaging, Sofiia is also involved with spectroscopic photoemission characterization of materials used for perovskite solar cells.

Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology

Monica Lira-Cantu is a Full Professor and Group Leader of the Nanostructured Materials for Photovoltaic Energy Group at the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2) in Barcelona, Spain. Her research interests are the synthesis and application of nanostructured materials for emerging solar cells like dye-sensitized, hybrid, organic and perovskite solar cells and the integration of different types of energy technologies for self-power electronics and the production of green energy. She has more than 135 publications, including 125 published articles in scientific journals, one book, 10 book chapters, and 11 patents. She is a reviewer for more than 30 scientific organizations and more than 50 scientific journals. She worked as a staff chemist for ExxonMobil Research & Engineering (USA), a visiting professor at EPFL (Switzerland) and has been visiting scientist at the Center for Advanced Science and Innovation (Japan), Oslo University (Norway), and the Risø DTU National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy (Denmark). Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) and the Cannon Foundation in Europe. She is currently Editor-in-Chief of APL Energy (AIP Publishing) and Advisory Editorial Board for Discovery Materials and Springer Nature Applied Sciences (Nature); Adv. Energy and Sustainability (Wiley); Chemical Physics Impact (Elsevier) and Matter (Cell Press).

Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics (SINANO)

Dr. Chang-Qi Ma received his PhD degree at the Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2003. After that he was a postdoctoral research assistant at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, UK, until he joined the research group of Professor Peter Bäuerle at the University of Ulm in 2004 as a Humboldt research fellow. From January 2007 till May 2011, he did his Habilitation in Institute of Organic Chemistry II and Advanced Materials, Ulm University. Since June 2011 he joined Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, as a professor of chemistry. His research group mainly works on printed organic/perovskite solar cells and precision printing processes for electronics. He has published over 180 papers and filed over 30 patents.

University of Colorado Boulder 

Mike McGehee is a Professor in the Chemical and Biological Engineering Department at the University of Colorado Boulder.  He is the Associate Director of the Materials Science and Engineering Program and has a joint appointment at the National Renewable Energy Lab.  He is a cofounder and the Chief Scientist of Tynt Technologies, a company that is commercializing dynamic windows based on reversible metal electrodeposition. He is an advisor to Swift Solar, which was cofounded by former members of his research group.  He was a professor in the Materials Science and Engineering Department at Stanford University for 18 years.  His current research interests are developing new materials for smart windows and solar cells. He has previously done research on polymer lasers, light-emitting diodes and transistors as well as transparent electrodes made from carbon nanotubes and silver nanowires. His group makes materials and devices, performs a wide variety of characterization techniques, models devices and assesses long-term stability.  He received his undergraduate degree in physics from Princeton University and his PhD degree in Materials Science from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin

Dr. Artem Musiienko is the Deputy Group Leader and a Marie Skłodowska Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin. His research focuses on developing advanced materials and interfaces for photovoltaic solar cells, with particular expertise in perovskite-based systems. Dr. Musiienko is dedicated to improving the stability and sustainability of perovskite solar cells, emphasizing the use of lead-free alternatives and innovative interface engineering. He is also pioneering the accelerated discovery of new materials through high-throughput characterization methods, aiming to revolutionize the efficiency and scalability of next-generation solar technologies. Dr. Musiienko’s contributions have earned him multiple awards, including the "Best Innovator 2023" from the Marie Curie Alumni Association.

Brown University

Nitin Padture is the Otis E. Randall University Professor in the School of Engineering, and founding Director of the Initiative for Sustainable Energy, at Brown University in the USA. A materials scientist by training, Padture's research interests are in the broad areas of advanced ceramics and nanomaterials, for applications ranging from solar photovoltaics to jet engines for renewable energy and energy efficiency. He has authored some 300 publications, including 10 patents. Padture is an elected Fellow of the American Ceramic Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Materials Research Society. He is Editor of the journals Acta Materialia and Scripta Materialia, and he serves on the Editorial Boards of the journals ACS Energy Letters and EcoMat.   

Imperial College London

Dr Julianna Panidi is an EPSRC David Clarke Fellow in the Department of Chemistry at Imperial College London. Her research focuses on developing high-performing solution-processed electronics, such as thin film transistors and solar cells. She has studied methods to enhance the charge carrier mobility of organic semiconductors with the use of molecular dopants and explore their application in organic thin film transistors. During her DCF fellowship, she is developing sustainable solution-processed solar cells, primarily focusing on materials, methods, and solvents used during manufacturing. Primarily, focus is given to the careful consideration of raw materials and solvents to enable environmentally friendly manufacturing processes.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Laura Schelhas is a senior scientist and the manager of the Hybrid and Nanoscale Materials Chemistry Group at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Her current research interests are focused on the intersection between PV reliability, emerging new technologies, and materials characterization. Laura serves as the executive director of the US-MAP consortium, and deputy director of the PACT center. Laura received her Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2013 where she studied the influence of nanoscale architecture on the materials properties in magnetic and magnetoelectric materials. In 2014, she accepted a postdoctoral position at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory using in-situ and operando methods to study both the formation and degradation of optoelectronic materials.  She became staff at SLAC in the Applied Energy Division in 2016 and served as the deputy director of the division and the group leader for the Grid Integration, Systems & Mobility (GISMo) Lab before taking her current position at NREL in 2020.

University of Tokyo

Satoshi Uchida (born 1965) is now a professor of Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST), The University of Tokyo, Japan. He obtained his Ph.D. at Graduate School of Engineering, Applied Chemistry, Tohoku University in 1995 and was a Research Associate from 1991 to 1996. During the period he belonged Research Institute of Mineral Dressing and Metallurgy (SENKEN), Institute for Advanced Materials Processing (IAMP), Institute for Chemical Reaction Science (ICRS) and Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials (IMRAM) at Tohoku University. After that he moved to the current institute (RCAST) of The University of Tokyo and became a Research Professor since May 2017.

Zurich University of Applied Science (ZHAW)

Wolfgang Tress is currently a professor at Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) leading the ERC-funded novel semiconductor devices group. His interests include characterizing and modeling of novel semiconductor materials and photovoltaic devices. Recently, he has been working on the device physics and the mixed ionic–electronic conductivity of perovskites. Prior to his appointment at ZHAW, he was an Ambizione fellow at the Graetzel and Hagfeldt labs at EPFL and a Marie Curie fellow at LMU. Based on his Ph.D. thesis at TU Dresden and postdoctoral research in the Inganäs group, he published a monograph on organic solar cells. For his influential works on luminescence, hysteresis, and stability in perovskite solar cells he received various awards such as the Energy & Environmental Science Readers' Choice Lectureship.

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Iris Visoly-Fisher completed her Ph.D. in Materials and Interfaces at the Weizmann Inst. of Science in 2004, studying single grain boundaries in polycrystalline CdTe solar cells. She then moved to Arizona State University as a postdoctoral fellow, where she worked on electrochemical potential-dependent current transport in single biomolecules. In 2008 she joined Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. She has published over 60 scientific publications, and guided more than 35 graduate students and postdocs. Her research interests include materials for renewable energy production and storage, photovoltaics, optoelectronics and organic electronics; surface science; and characterization through a ‘bottom up’ approach – from the properties of a single building block to understanding the system’s behavior. She specializes in accelerated stability testing using concentrated natural sunlight and outdoor operational lilfetime characterization. Her studies elucidated the photo-degradation mechanisms active in organic and perovskite photovoltaic materials, and suggested methodologies to improve their stability. In parallel, she studies photoelectrodes for fuel production using renewable solar energy.

Swansea University