Advancing Perovskite-Based Photovoltaics

                                  
                                                                        

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.

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.

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.

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 and perovskites semiconductors 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.

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.

Dr Frank Schoofs CEng FIMMM is the Head of Research at Oxford PV. Oxford PV is a world leader in high performance perovskite-based solar cells. Prior to joining Oxford PV, Frank lead projects on space-based solar power for Space Solar while at the Satellite Applications Catapult and on different aspects of nuclear fusion at the UK Atomic Energy Authority, ranging from superconducting magnets, to additive manufacturing, to the use of virtual reality for engineering design. 

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.

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.

Jun Hong Noh is a professor affiliated with the School of Civil, Environmental & Architectural Engineering and the Department of Integrative Energy Engineering at Korea University. He earned his BS and PhD degrees in material science and engineering from Seoul National University in 2003 and 2009, respectively. Prior to joining Korea University in 2017, he held a senior researcher position at the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT) from 2011 to 2017. His primary research interests revolve around halide perovskite solar cells. He has made significant contributions to the development of high-quality halide perovskite thin films, device architectures, and the composition of halide perovskites for use in solar cells. His current research focus is on oxide and halide semiconductors, aiming to enhance the stability and commercial viability of perovskite solar cells. He was selected as the world's Highly Cited Researchers (HCR) in 2018-2024 by Clarivate and he was honored as a Young Academician Member of the Korean Academy of Science and Technology.

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.

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.

Jangwon Seo is a KAIST endowed chair professor in the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. from Seoul National University in 1998, 2000, and 2006, respectively. Then, he worked at the University at Buffalo, the State University of New York, as a postdoctoral researcher. Before joining KAIST in 2021.5, he was a senior/principal researcher at the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT) from 2013 to 2021.4. His research has focused on the development of efficient & stable hybrid perovskite solar cells, scale-up fabrication and organic-polymer semiconductors for opto-electronic applications. He has published over 100 research papers in leading journals including Nature, Nature Energy and Nature Communications. According to Google Scholar, his scholarly work has acquired 41,199 citations, earning him an h-index of 55. His work has been recognized with inclusion in the Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers list in 2022 and 2023.

Hairen Tan is a distinguished full professor at the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University. He received the PhD degree with cum laude from Delft University of Technology in 2015 and further continued his research expertise during a postdoctoral fellowship in Professor Ted Sargent’s group at the University of Toronto from 2015 to 2018, funded by Rubicon Fellowship.

Dr. Tan's research focuses on the development of high-efficiency and cost-effective photovoltaic devices, with a specialized focus on perovskite solar cells and perovskite-based tandem solar cells. His groundbreaking work has led to the establishment of seven world records for the efficiency of all-perovskite solar cells, underscoring his significant contributions to the field. He has published more than 100 papers in journals such as Science, Nature, and Nature Energy, with over 20,000 citations, earning him recognition as a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher in 2021-2024.

Dr. Tan founded Renshine Solar company in 2021 to advance the commercialization of perovskite photovoltaics. He is also an external editor for Communications Materials and serves on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Semiconductors and Science China Materials.

Dr. Yue Hu is a lecturer at the School of Chemistry, the University of Edinburgh. She completed her PhD in Chemistry in 2016 and won a Fraser and Stoddart Prize in 2017. She was a research fellow at the Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics (WNLO) in Huazhong University of Science and Technology since 2016 and has been an Associate Professor in 2018. In 2023, she moved to Edinburgh. Her current research interest is focused on the chemistry and physics of materials for photovoltaic applications. 

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.