PVSEC-30 & GPVC 2020

Plenary & Keynote Speakers

Plenary Speakers
* Last name alphabetical order

Dr. Jian Ding Hanergy Thin Film Power Group
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- Plenary Speaker
- Dr. Jian Ding
- Hanergy Thin Film Power Group
- Advanced Thin Film PV Technologies and Applications
- Biography
  Jian has thirty years of experience in the fields of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, process technology, and advanced solar technologies.
  
  He is a senior Vice President of Hanergy Thin Film Power Group, his responsibilities include the head of Hanergy PV technical committee, and CEO of ALTA High-tech Equipment Business Group.
  
  Prior to joining Hanergy, he was the Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Astronergy, a solar manufacturing company, as well as the general manager of thin-film business unit.
  
  Before that, Jian was the Vice President of Global Technology and Applications for MKS Instruments. MKS is a global provider of instruments, subsystems and process control solutions that measure, control, power, monitor, and analyze critical parameters of advanced manufacturing processes to improve process performance and productivity.
  
  Jian also served as the Vice President for three years at NMC in Beijing, China, as well as a total of fifteen years at Applied Materials in a variety of technical and business management roles culminating as a general manager with P&L responsibility.
  
  Jian Ding received a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology, China, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley.
Dr. Michael Graetzel École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
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- Plenary Speaker
- Dr. Michael Graetzel
- École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
- (Title: To be announced.)
- Biography
  (TBA)
Dr. Yongfang Li University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
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- Plenary Speaker
- Dr. Yongfang Li
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
- (Title: To be announced.)
- Biography
  
  Education:
  Master Degree was obtained in 1982 in Chemistry Department, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China. Physical Chemistry Specialty
  Ph.D. degree was obtained in 1986 in Chemistry Department,Fudan University. Shanghai 200433, China. Physical Chemistry Specialty (Electrochemistry).
  Research career:
  2013.11. elected as a member of Chinese Academy of Sciences.
  2012.12.- present, Professor of Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China.
  1997.6. – 1998.6., Visiting Scientist, Institute for Polymers and Organic Solids, UCSB, USA.
  1988.10.-1991.4., Visiting scholar, Institute for Molecular Science (IMS), Okazaki, Japan.
  1988.9. – present, staff of ICCAS, Beijing 100190, China. 1993.- present, Professor.
  1986.8. – 1988.8., Postdoctoral fellow in Institute of Chemistry, CAS (ICCAS), Beijing 100190, China.
  Recent Awards:
  2018, the Second-Grade National Award of China on Natural Sciences, for the contribution in “Photovoltaic materials of the conjugated polymer donors with conjugated side chains and indene-fullerene bisadduct acceptors”
  2012, “Macro2012 Lecture Award” by PMSE of ACS (American Chemical Society).
  2005, the First-Grade Award of Beijing City on Science and Technology, for the contribution in “The studies on the electrochemistry of conducting polymers and polymer light-emitting electrochemical cells”
  Present research interests:
  Polymer solar cells and related photovoltaic materials.
Dr. Shigeru Niki Renewable Energy Unit, Technology Strategy Center
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- Plenary Speaker
- Dr. Shigeru Niki
- Renewable Energy Unit, Technology Strategy Center
- Future prospects of next-generation PV technology
- Biography
  
  Education:
  March 1991: Ph. D in Electrical Engineering (Applied Physics) University of California, San Diego
  Professional Career:
  - February 2019-Present: Director General, Renewable Energy Unit, Technology Strategy Center, New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO)
  - April 2017-January 2019: Assistant Director General, Department of Energy and Environment, AIST
  - April 2015-March 2017: Director, Renewable Energy Research Center
  - April 2013-March 2015: Director, Research Center for Photovoltaic Technologies
  - April 2011-March 2013: Research Center for Photovoltaic Technologies founded
    Deputy Director, Research Center for Photovoltaic Technologies
  - April 2004 to Mar. 2011: Research Center for Photovoltaics founded
    Deputy Director, Research Center for Photovoltaics
  - April 2001: Electrotechnical Laboratory reorganized to AIS
    Team Leader, Photonics Research Institute
  - April 1991: Joined Electrotechnical Laboratory
  Major Research Topics:
  Photovoltaics (CIGS, CZTS, c-Si, etc.), wind power, geothermal, marine energy, shallow geothermal and hydrogeology, hydrogen energy carrier, bio-jet fuel, energy network, etc.,
Dr. Stefan Nowak NET Nowak Energy & Technology Ltd.
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- Plenary Speaker
- Dr. Stefan Nowak
- NET Nowak Energy & Technology Ltd.
- (Title: To be announced.)
- Biography
  (Title: To be announced.)
Dr. Noritaka Usami Nagoya University
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- Plenary Speaker
- Dr. Noritaka Usami
- Nagoya University
- Materials and process informatics for research on photovoltaics
- Biography
  
  PROFESSIONAL CAREER
  2013- Professor, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University
  2018-2020 Senior Science and Technology Policy Fellow, Council for Science, Technology, and Innovation, Cabinet Office, Government of Japan
  2000-2013 Associate Professor, Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University
  1998-1999 Visiting Researcher, Institüt für Angewandte Photophysik, Technische Universität Dresden
  1994-2000 Research Associate, Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo
  1993-1994 Junior Scientist of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
  EDUCATION
  D.E. 1998 The University of Tokyo
  M.E. 1993 The University of Tokyo
  B.E. 1991 The University of Tokyo
  AWARDS
  2018 SiliconPV Award
  2017 Innovative PV award, JSPS 175th committee
  2012 Best poster award, the 38th IEEE PVSC
  2009 The best paper award, PVSEC-19
  2008 Intelligent Cosmos Award
  2000 Ando Incentive Prize for the Study of Electronics
  1993 Young Researcher Award of Solid State Devices and Material
Dr. Ralf B. Wehrspohn Fraunhofer Institute
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- Plenary Speaker
- Dr. Ralf B. Wehrspohn
- Fraunhofer Institute
- Solar Fuels – Perspectives for PV Technologies
- Biography
  
  ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL CAREER
  Since 10/2019 Executive Vice President of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft e.V., Technology Marketing and Business Models
  2018–2019 Head of Fraunhofer Group for Materials and Components – MATERIALS
  Since 2006 W3 professor for experimental physics at the Martin-Luther-University of Halle-Wittenberg, chair of Microstructure-based Materials Design
  2006–2019 Institute director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems, Halle
  2003–2006 C4 professor for experimental physics at the University of Paderborn, chair of Nanophotonic Materials
  1999–2003 Leader of a junior research group at the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics in Halle in the field of the application of porous materials
  1998–1999 Research assistant at the Philips Research Laboratories, Redhill, England. Research in the field of thin film technologies, i.a. flat panel displays
  1995–1997 Doctoral candidate at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg and at the École Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France
  1990–1995 Studies of physics at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg and the École Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France
  AWARDS/HONORS
  2004 One of the 101 most important minds in Germany awarded by Financial Times Deutschland
  2003 TR100 young innovators award of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  2003 Heinz Maier Leibnitz Prize of the German Science Foundation (DFG)
  2002 Innovations award of Dow Chemical Deutschland

Keynote Speakers
* Last name alphabetical order

Dr. Christian Breyer Lappeenranta University of Technology
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- Keynote Speaker
- Dr. Christian Breyer
- Lappeenranta University of Technology
- (Title: To be announced.)
- Biography
  
  Christian Breyer is Professor for Solar Economy at LUT University, Finland. His major expertise is the integrated research of technological and economic characteristics of renewable energy systems specializing in energy system modeling for 100% renewable energy, on a local but also global scale. His team published the most studies on 100% renewable energy for countries or major regions globally. Energy system transition studies are carried out in full hourly and high geo-spatial resolution. Publications cover integrated sector analyses with power, heat, transport, desalination, industry and negative CO₂ emission options. Carbon capture and utilisation as part of comprehensive Power-to-X investigations is a core research field for his team. He published more than 250 scientific papers, thereof more than 100 in scientific journals. He worked previously for Reiner Lemoine Institut, Berlin, and Q-Cells (now: Hanwha Q Cells). He is member of ETIP PV, IEA-PVPS, scientific committee of the EU PVSEC and IRES, scientific advisory board of CO₂ Value Europe, chairman for renewable energy at the Energy Watch Group, reviewer for the IPCC and a co-founder of the Desertec Foundation. His academic background is general business, physics and energy systems engineering and a PhD in electrical engineering. He communicates in Twitter @ChristianOnRE.
Dr. Ralph Gottschalg Faunhofer CSP Lab
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- Keynote Speaker
- Dr. Ralph Gottschalg
- Faunhofer CSP Lab
- Title: Quality assurance in PV? Why do failures in the field happen and how could they be avoided?
- Biography
  
  (TBA)
Dr. Sarah Kurtz University of California Merced
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- Keynote Speaker
- Dr. Sarah Kurtz
- University of California Merced
- (Title: To be announced.)
- Biography
  
  PRESENT POSITION
  Nov. 2017 – current, Professor, University of California Merced
  
  PREVIOUS RESPONSIBILITIES at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
  2015 – 2017, PV Program Manager
  2015 – 2017, NCPV Co-Director
  2014 – current, Research Fellow
  2007 – 2017, Group Manager of the Reliability and Test Evaluation Group,
  1999 – 2007, Group Manager of III-V Group
  1986 – 1999, Staff, Senior, and Career Scientist (III-V research)
  1985 – 1986, Post-doc (amorphous silicon research)
  
  EDUCATION
  Ph.D. Chemical Physics, 1985, Harvard University
  B.A. Chemistry and Physics, 1979, Manchester College
  
  SELECTED RECOGNITIONS AND AWARDS
  C3E Lifetime Achievement Award, 2016. Annual national award recognizes a lifetime of work in solar energy. Other recipients include Mildred Dresselhaus (2012) and Mary Nichols (2015).
  Hubbard Award (NREL), 2014. NREL’s highest technical award.
  Cherry Award, 2012. Annual international award recognizes outstanding contributions to photovoltaic research.
  Dan David Prize (shared with Jerry Olson and James Hanson), Future category “Energy,” 2007. Recognized development of GaInP solar cell – an unusual case of a technology developed at a single lab becoming the industry standard. Other recipients include Gordon Moore (2010) and Paul Alivasatos (2016).
  
  SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
  S. Kurtz, I. Repins, W. Metzger, P. Verlinden, S. Huang, S. Bowden, I. Tappan, K. Emery, L. Kazmerski, and D. Levi, “Historical Analysis of Champion Photovoltaic Module Efficiencies” IEEE Journal of PV, 8, February 2018.
  M. A. Steiner, J. F. Geisz, I. Garcia, D. J. Friedman, A. Duda, and S. R. Kurtz, "Optical enhancement of Voc in high quality GaAs solar cells," J. Appl. Phys., vol. 113, pp. 123109-1 - 123109-11, 2013.
  Miller, Owen D., Eli Yablonovitch, and Sarah R. Kurtz. "Strong internal and external luminescence as solar cells approach the Shockley–Queisser limit." IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics 2.3 (2012): 303-311.
  More than 100 peer-reviewed publications
  More than 200 conference presentations
Dr. Jae Sung Lee Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology
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- Keynote Speaker
- Dr. Jae Sung Lee
- Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology
- (Title: To be announced.)
- Biography
  
  (TBA)
Dr. Jörg Müller Hanwha QCELLS GmbH
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- Keynote Speaker
- Dr. Jörg Müller
- Hanwha QCELLS GmbH
- (Title: To be announced.)
- Biography
  
  April 2020:
  Jörg Müller is Senior Vice President R&D Cells at Hanwha Q Cells GmbH, his responsibility include the development and optimization of cost effective, high efficiency silicon solar cells and their implementation in gigawatt scale production. He studied physics in Munich and Edinburgh. In 2000 he joined ISFH working in the field of rear contacted and bifacial sensitive solar cells. He received his Ph.D. degree from Hannover University in 2005. He joined Q-Cells SE in 2004 working in several positions in the technology division. Since 2007 he is leading the crystalline silicon cell development at Q Cells.
Dr. Noren Pan Microlink Devices
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- Keynote Speaker
- Dr. Noren Pan
- Microlink Devices
- (Title: To be announced.)
- Biography
  
  Education
  Ph.D. EE University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL May 1988
  MSEE University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL May 1985
  BSEE with honors University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND May 1982
  
  Professional Career
  2000- Recent President of MicroLink Devices
  1995-2000 Chief Scientist – Kopin, Taunton, MA
  Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor for Cellular phone applications
  1988-1995 Senior Scientist – Raytheon Research Division, Lexington, MA
  High Electron Mobility Transistors, Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor
  for X-band radar applications
  
  Membership
  2007-Present Senior Member IEEE
  1997-2007 Mantech Technical Program Committee Member
Dr. Jang Won Seo Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT)
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- Keynote Speaker
- Dr. Jang Won Seo
- Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT)
- (Title: To be announced.)
- Biography
  
  (TBA)
Dr. Ayodhya N. Tiwari Empa - Swiss Federal Laboratories for Material Science and Technology
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- Keynote Speaker
- Dr. Ayodhya N. Tiwari
- Empa - Swiss Federal Laboratories for Material Science and Technology
- (Title: To be announced.)
- Biography
  
  Ayodhya N. Tiwari is the head of the Laboratory for Thin Films and Photovoltaics, Empa-Swiss Federal Laboratories for Material Science and Technology, and a Professor at ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of technology) Zürich, Switzerland. He is the Chairman and founder of ETH-spinout company Flisom in Zurich to transfer the lab’s innovative research excellence in flexible lightweight solar cells to industrial manufacturing. He has been conferred with an honorary doctorate degree by the Hasselt University, Belgium for his contributions in the field of thin film solar cells.
  
  Dr. Tiwari has more than 37 years of R&D experience in various thin film photovoltaic technologies. He is a co-author of more than 280 research publications and about 260 conference presentations including numerous invited papers and talks. He has co-chaired or co-organised several international conferences, co-edited special issues of leading journals on solar cells and thin films, is serving on the editorial boards of journals. He has been advisor to various institutions and expert delegation member of EU and other national agencies. Dr. Tiwari is a co-recipient of several awards and recognitions, his students have won young scientist and other awards (24 in total) at international conferences for innovative research in thin film solar cells.
  
  Important contributions of Tiwari’s group include: development of highest record efficiency flexible solar cells : 20.4% efficiency CIGS and 13.8% efficiency CdTe solar cells on polymer films with processes suitable for roll-to-roll manufacturing; monolithic interconnected flexible solar mini-modules with 16.9% efficiency; simple and safe non-vacuum deposition processes for CIGS and Kesterite solar cells; development of highly efficient semi-transparent Perovskite solar cells and CIGS based multi-junction (tandem) solar cells – recently achieved 22.7% perovskite/CIGS tandem solar
Dr. He Yan The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
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- Keynote Speaker
- Dr. He Yan
- The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
- (Title: To be announced.)
- Biography
  
  Academic Qualifications:
  1996-2000       B. S., Peking University, P. R. China
  2000-2004       Ph. D., Northwestern University, USA.
  2004-2005       Post–doctoral Fellow, Northwestern University, USA
  2012-2016                      Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
  2016-Present      Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
  
  Working Experience:
  2009-2012 Vice President of Product Development, Polyera Corporation, USA
  2006-2009 Product Development Manager, Polyera Corporation, USA
  2005-2006 Senior research scientist, Air Products and Chemicals, USA
  
  Honors and highlights:
  2019     Web of Science “Highly Cited Researcher”
  2018     Web of Science “Highly Cited Researcher”
  2016     HKUST School of Science Teaching Award
  2015     HKUST School of Science Research Award
  2014     Achieved multiple cases of record-breaking polymer solar cells
  2011      Flextech Flexi Award for R&D team award
  2010     IDTechEx Printed Electronics “Best Organic Materials” Award
  2009     Work highlighted on the cover page of “Nature” as the “new transistor age”
  
  Biography
  Dr. He Yan (Henry) obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Northwestern University. After that, Dr. Yan spent most of his research career at Polyera Corporation, a leading company in the Organic Electronics industry. In 2009, Dr. Yan and his team published the first high-mobility n-type semiconducting polymer in Nature and the work was referred to as the "new transistor age" on the cover page of Nature. With the achievement, Dr. Yan was invited to receive the IdTechEx Printed Electronics "Best Organic Material" award in Dresden, Germany in 2010.
  After returning to HKUST, Dr. Yan’s group achieved world record efficiency organic solar cells multiple times. The latest certified 11.5% single-junction OSC was noted in the renowned “Best Research-Cell Efficiency” chart by NREL, which the first time a Chinese institution appeared on the chart in the last 40 years. Dr. Yan’s group has published several important papers on fullerene and non-fullerene OSCs including two papers on Nature Energy and two papers on Nature Comm. in the past two years. The paper Nature Comm, 2014, 5, 5293 has been cited over 2300 times in about 4 years.