Advancing Perovskite-Based Photovoltaics

                                  
                                                                        

Prof. Michael Graetzel studied chemistry at the Free University of Berlin and performed his doctoral thesis work in at the Technical University Berlin. followed by postdoctoral stay at University of Notre Dame, Indiana (USA). After a brief return to Berlin, during which Michael obtained his Habilitation in Physical Chemistry at the Free University under the guidance of Professor Heinz Gerischer, he moved to Lausanne Switzerland, in 1977 where he joined the EPFL faculty first as a professor. It was at EPFL that Michael started his pioneering research on colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals and there use for solar energy conversion and storage which lead to several ground breaking discoveries. These generated new research fronts worldwide in the domain of photovoltaics, electrochemistry and photo-electrochemistry, addressing the urgent need to develop low-cost and efficient systems for the conversion of sunlight to electricity and chemical fuels. His publications have received over 500'000 citations (H-index = 312) showing the large scientific impact of his work.

Michael is particularly well known for his discovery of mesoscopic dye-sensitized solar cells (named after him “Graetzel cells”), which in turn engendered the advent of perovskite photovoltaics, constituting the most exciting breakthrough in the recent history of photovoltaics. He used his revolutionary concept of three-dimensional junctions of nanocrystals also to realize photo-electrochemical devices for the solar generation of hydrogen and reduction of carbon dioxide as well as for the storage of electricity in lithium-ion insertion batteries

Qing Zhao is a Professor at Peking University. She obtained Ph. D. degree in Condensed Matter Physics from School of Physics, Peking University in 2006 and worked as a postdoctoral fellow at University of Washington from 2006-2009 before she joined as a faculty in Peking University at 2009. Her research interests include fundamental stability mechanism study of halide perovskite materials and their device applications in solar cells. She has published more than 100 research articles, and her work has been cited over 10000 times with h-index of 57. Her contributions to help to understand the intrinsic stability of perovskite materials and photovoltaic devices have been published in prestigious academic journals, including Nature Photonics, Nature Energy, Nature Communications and Science Advances.

Aleksandra B. Djurišić obtained Ph. D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the School of Electrical Engineering, the University of Belgrade in 1997. After finishing her PhD studies, she worked as a postdoctoral fellow at University of Hong Kong and as an Alexander von Humboldt postdoctoral fellow at TU Dresden. She joined the Dept. of Physics at the University of Hong Kong in 2003 as assistant professor, where she has worked as a professor 2013. Her research interests include halide perovskite materials, nanomaterials, wide-bandgap semiconductors, and organic materials, and their applications in areas related to energy and environment, such as photocatalysis, antimicrobial materials, solar cells, and LEDs. She has published 420 research articles listed in WoS, and her work has been cited over 27100 times. Her h-index is 71.

Shuxia Tao is Associate Professor of Computational Materials Physics at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), The Netherlands. Her research explores the fundamental interactions between electrons, spins, and ions in emerging semiconductors and functional nanomaterials, with a focus on defect physics, light–matter interaction, and degradation mechanisms. She develops multiscale modeling frameworks that combine density functional theory (DFT), molecular dynamics, and machine learning.

Shuxia earned her MSc in Physical Chemistry from Nankai University and her PhD from TU/e in 2011, where she focused on computational materials design for energy devices. After a short family leave, she worked at NIKHEF (Amsterdam) from 2013 to 2016 on computational photodetector design. She joined TU/e's Department of Applied Physics in 2016, was appointed Assistant Professor in 2018, and promoted to Associate Professor in 2023.

Her work is supported by multiple prestigious national and EU grants, including NWO VIDI, and the ERC Consolidator Grant. She serves as Associate Editor for AI for Science (IOP Publishing) and Editorial Board Member of Applied Physics Letters. Nationally, she contributes to Dutch research policy via the NWO Round Table Physics and as vice-chair of the Nano, Quantum, and Materials Physics community.

Stefan W. Glunz received his Ph.D. from the University of Freiburg, Germany, in 1995. He is a full professor of Photovoltaic Energy Conversion at Albert-Ludwigs-University in Freiburg and the director of the Photovoltaics division at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, ISE. His research focuses on the development and characterization of high-efficiency crystalline silicon, III-V, organic, and perovskite solar cells.

Prof. Dr. Glunz has authored or co-authored over 200 journal articles and 300 conference papers. He serves on the scientific committees of various photovoltaics conferences and workshops, initiated the SiliconPV conference, and organized the tandemPV workshop in 2022. He was awarded the Eni Award in 2008 for his contributions to renewable energy science and technology and the Becquerel Award in 2014 for Outstanding Merits in Photovoltaics. 

Barry Rand earned a BE in electrical engineering from The Cooper Union in 2001. Then he received MA and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from Princeton University, in 2003 and 2007, respectively. From 2007 to 2013, he was at imec in Leuven, Belgium, ultimately as a principal scientist, researching the understanding, optimization, and manufacturability of thin-film solar cells.

Since 2013, he is jointly appointed between the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment at Princeton University. Prof. Rand’s research interests highlight the border between electrical engineering, materials science, chemistry, and applied physics, covering electronic and optoelectronic thin-films and devices. He has authored over 200 refereed journal publications, holds 25 US patents, and has received the 3M Nontenured Faculty Award (2014), DuPont Young Professor Award (2015), DARPA Young Faculty Award (2015), ONR Young Investigator Program Award (2016), and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Experimental Physics Investigators Initiative award (2023).

Nitin P. 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 (USA). He received B.Tech. in Metallurgical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay (1985), M.S. in Ceramic Engineering from Alfred University (1987), and Ph.D. in Materials Science & Engineering from Lehigh University (1991). Padture was a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology for 3 years, before joining the University of Connecticut (UConn) faculty in January 1995 as Assistant Professor. He became Associate Professor in 1998 and Professor in 2003. Padture served as Interim Department Head at UConn for one year before moving to The Ohio State University (OSU) in January 2005. At OSU he was College of Engineering Distinguished Professor, and also founding Director of the National Science Foundation funded Materials Research Science and Engineering Center. Padture moved to Brown University in January 2012, and most recently he served as Director of Brown's Institute for Molecular and Nanoscale Innovation for about eight years.

Padture’s research interests are in advanced composite, coating, and thin-film materials, for applications ranging from jet engines to emerging solar photovoltaics, impacting the transportation and energy sectors of the economy. Padture has authored or co-authored about 300 publications, including 9 awarded patents, which have been widely cited. He has delivered about 300 invited/ keynote/ plenary talks and seminars in the US and abroad. A Fellow of the American Ceramic Society, Padture has received that society's Roland B. Snow, Robert L. Coble, and Richard M. Fulrath awards. He is also a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Materials Research Society. Padture has receive several awards, including the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, the IIT-Bombay Distinguished Alumnus Award, and the Brown University Presidential Faculty Award. Padture is editor of two prestigious journals in the field of materials science & engineering: Acta Materialia and Scripta Materialia.

Yi Hou is a Presidential Young Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Since 2020, he has led the Perovskite-based Multijunction Solar Cell Group at the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS). He holds a Ph.D. (SAOT Scholarship) in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, followed by postdoctoral research at the University of Toronto's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He has also been a visiting scholar at Oxford University, EPFL, Australian National University, and Stanford University. Prof. Hou was recognized as an MIT Technology Review Innovator Under 35 (Asia Pacific) for his work in perovskite-based tandem solar cells. He has published over 100 research papers in leading journals such as Science, Nature, Nature Energy, Nature Materials, Nature Photonics, Nature Electronics, and Nature Nanotechnology, accumulating over 14,000 citations. His work has been recognized with inclusion in Clarivate Analytics' Highly Cited Researchers list in the Cross-Field category for three consecutive years (2022, 2023, and 2024). Since 2023, he has also served as an Editor for the IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics.

To transition these advancements from NUS labs to commercialization, Prof. Hou founded Singfilm Solar as an NUS spin-off. With the completion of its pilot production line in Singapore in 2024, the company now has the capacity to produce millions of solar cells annually, establishing itself as one of the largest commercial perovskite solar cell manufacturers.

Aldo Di Carlo is a Full Professor at the Department of Electronic Engineering at the University of Rome Tor Vergata (Italy), Director of the Institute of Structure of Matter of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR-ISM), and President of the CNR Research Area of Rome – RM2, which includes more than 10 research institutes. Di Carlo founded and directed from 2006 to 2019,  the Center for Hybrid and Organic Solar Energy (CHOSE), which comprises more than 60 PhD students and experienced researchers in the emerging field of photovoltaics. Additionally, he served as Chairman of the Scientific Council of the Dyepower consortium for the development and industrialization of Dye Solar Cells (DSCs).

Di Carlo's research interests include the study, design, and optimization of electronic and optoelectronic devices. His work has focused on the development and scaling-up of emerging photovoltaic technologies, with particular emphasis on Dye Solar Cells (DSCs) and Perovskite Solar Cells for industrial applications. He has authored or co-authored over 600 international scientific publications and holds 13 international patents. Furthermore, he has served as general coordinator or partner coordinator in more than 25 large European projects.

Nam-Gyu Park is a Lifetime Distinguished Professor at the School of Chemical Engineering and Director of the SKKU Institute of Energy Science and Technology (SIEST) at Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU). He earned his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Seoul National University. After postdoctoral appointments at ICMCB-CNRS in France and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in the USA, he held key research roles at ETRI and KIST before joining SKKU in 2009. Prof. Park is a fellow of the Korean Academy of Science and Technology (KAST), and a world-renowned expert in photovoltaics, particularly known for pioneering the field of perovskite solar cells with his landmark 2012 report on long-term stable devices.

Recognized for his scientific leadership, Prof. Park was named a Citation Laureate in 2017 and has been included in the Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers list from 2017 to 2024. His numerous honors include the Samsung Ho-Am Prize (2018), the Rank Prize (UK, 2022), the Eni Award (Italy, 2024), and Korea’s Top Scientist and Technologist Award (2024). In addition to his research, Prof. Park plays a vital editorial role in the scientific community as Senior Editor of ACS Energy Letters and a board member for Chemical Reviews, ChemSusChem, and Solar RRL.

Mahshid Ahmadi is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) USA, and will be promoted to Associate Professor in August 2025. She earned her Ph.D. in 2013 from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. She leads a pioneering program that combines autonomous high-throughput experimentation, hypothesis-driven synthesis, and interpretable machine learning to accelerate halide perovskites discovery and extract fundamental insights from complex datasets. Her work sits at the forefront of AI-driven materials science and aims to establish a predictive understanding of structure–property relationships in halide perovskites. She is the recipient of several prestigious honors, including the 2021 NSF CAREER Award, 2022 Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship in Chemistry, and 2025 Scialog Fellowship in Automated Chemical Laboratories from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA).

She was named a 2024 Early Career Rising Star in Materials Science by ACS Materials Au, received the 2024 UTK Tickle College of Engineering Professional Promise in Research Award, and the 2022 UTK MSE Faculty Award for Excellence in Research. Dr. Ahmadi has contributed to national conversations on the future of automation and AI in science, serving as an invited panelist for the NSF–Carnegie Mellon National Network of Cloud and Self-Driving Labs (2023), and has been featured twice by MRS Women in Science (2022 & 2023) on International Women’s Day. She serves as an Associate Editor for APL Machine Learning and has authored or co-authored approximately 100 peer-reviewed publications and delivered over 40 invited talks at leading national and international conferences.

Angèle Reinders is a professor of 'Design of Sustainable Energy Systems' in the Energy Technology Group at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands. She aims at an optimal use and integration of sustainable energy technologies in products, buildings and local infrastructures. In this design-driven research theme improved designs of photovoltaic energy applications are explored from an interdisciplinary perspective, and also developed by means of simulation, prototyping and testing. Her focus is on - but not limited to - optimized applications of solar energy technologies in buildings and mobility.

Angèle Reinders studied experimental physics at Utrecht University, where she also received her doctoral degree (1999). In the past she held positions at Utrecht University, Delft University of Technology, University of Twente, Solliance, Fraunhofer Institute of Solar Energy, the World Bank in the USA, ENEA in Italy, Center of Urban Energy in Toronto, UNSW in Australia and in Indonesia.  She wrote several books, such as “Designing with Photovoltaics” (2020), “The Power of Design” (2012) and “Photovoltaic Solar Energy From Fundamentals to Applications” (Volume 1 in 2017, Volume 2 in 2024) and she co-founded the Journal of Photovoltaics. She has been involved in the PVPS program of the International Energy Agency, among which Task 17 on PV for Transport and Task 1 on Strategic PV Analysis & Outreach.

Hongxia Wang is a Professor and Australian Research Council (ARC) Georgina Sweet Laureate Fellow at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Her research focuses on developing sustainable approaches for fabricating cost-effective solar cells and energy storage devices with enhanced performance and longevity. She has conducted extensive research on sensitized solar cells, perovskite solar cells, CZTS-based thin-film solar cells, supercapacitors, and batteries. She is an elected Fellow of the Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC), and the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (FRACI). Additionally, she serves as a member of the Australian Research Council (ARC) College of Experts (2020–2025).

Her achievements have been recognized with multiple awards, including the ‘Solar Energy Journal Best Paper Award for 2016 in Photovoltaics’ (International Solar Energy Society) and ‘the Best Research Paper Award in Manufacturing and Material Science’ (China Association for Science and Technology, 2023). She was a recipient of several prestigious fellowships, such as the ARC Laureate Fellowship (2024), ARC Future Fellowship (2012), ARC Postdoctoral Fellowship (Industry, APDI, 2007), and QUT Vice-Chancellor’s Research Fellowship (2010). She was awarded QUT’s ‘Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence’ in 2024 and ‘Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Best Research with Real-World Impact’ in both 2015 and 2017.

 

Fengqi You is the Roxanne E. and Michael J. Zak Professor in Energy Systems Engineering at Cornell University. At Cornell, he serves as Co-Director of both the AI for Science Institute (CUAISci) and the Cornell Institute for Digital Agriculture (CIDA). He also leads the Cornell AI for Sustainability Initiative (CAISI).​ You's research integrates systems analytics, artificial intelligence, and sustainability science, with applications spanning energy systems, smart manufacturing, digital agriculture, and materials informatics. His pioneering work on the life cycle assessment and recycling of perovskite solar cells has been featured in leading journals such as Nature, Nature Sustainability, Science Advances, and Energy & Environmental Science. Recognized with over 25 major research, he is a Fellow of the AAAS, AIChE and RSC.

Yixin Zhao is a distinguished professor in Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University with B.S. and M.S. degrees in Chemistry and received his Ph.D. degree from Case Western Reserve University, followed by working as a postdoctoral fellow at Penn State University and National Renewable Energy Laboratory. He has been working in the field of perovskite-based photovoltaics since 2012 with many innovative research works accomplished.

Professor Zhao’s research interests are in perovskite solar cells and perovskite-based functional materials for solar energy conversion and environmental remediation. He has systematically utilized the chemical properties of perovskites to strategically improve the efficiency and stability of perovskite solar cells and large-area modules. He has published over 260 papers on world-renowned journals including Nature, Science, Nat. Sustain, Nat. Commun., Sci. Adv., J. Am. Chem. Soc., Angew. Chem., Adv. Mater., Chem. Soc. Rev., Acc. Chem. Res., Joule, etc. with over 23000 citations. He has been enlisted as the Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate Analytics for seven consecutive years from 2018 to 2024. He is currently the Associate Editor of Journal of Energy Chemistry and serves on the Editorial Board of many prestigious journals including Natl. Sci. Rev., Sci. Bull., eScience, etc.

 Yuanyuan (Alvin) Zhou is a university-endorsed Star Faculty and tenured Associate Professor at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). He is the Associate Director of the HKUST Energy Institute. He obtained his B.S. in materials science and engineering from Xi’an Jiaotong University and Ph.D. in engineering at Brown University (2012-2016).

He has co-authored over 140 journal publications with 14,000 Google citations and 60 H-index. He has received numerous prestigious honors and awards, including the China's National Science Foundation Excellent Young Scientist. He is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Energy Chemistry (Elsevier) and an Advisory Board Member for Device (Cell Press). Prof. Zhou’s group research innovates semiconductors and devices, as well as the way to study them. Their flagship contributions to elevating the understanding of the perovskite microstructure have been published in prestigious academic journals, including Science, Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Energy, and Nature Synthesis.