Our speakers

Udo Bach is a full professor at Monash University in the Department of Chemical Engineering; the Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science and an ANFF-VIC Technology Fellow at the Melbourne Centre of Nanofabrication (MCN).  He received his PhD from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL, Switzerland) working in the research group of Prof Michael Grätzel and worked for 3 years in a technology start-up company in Dublin (Ireland).  Subsequently he spent 15 months as a postdoc in the group of Prof. Paul Alivisatos in UC Berkeley (USA) before moving to Monash University in November 2005 to establish his own research group.

 

Prof Bach has a strong background in the area of photovoltaics and nanofabrication.  He is involved in fundamental and applied research in the area of perovskite and dye-sensitized solar cells.  He has additional research activities in the area of nanofabrication, DNA-directed self-assembly, nanoprinting, plasmonics for sensing, photovoltaic applications and combinatorial photovoltaic materials discovery.

Hyun Suk Jung is an associate professor in school of advanced materials science & engineering at Sungkyunkwan university (SKKU). He received his BS, MS, and PhD degrees in materials science & engineering from Seoul National University (SNU), in 1997, 1999, and 2004, respectively. He joined Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) as a director’s postdoctoral fellow in 2005. He had worked for Kookmin University (KMU) since 2006 and joined SKKU in 2011. He published over 130 peer-reviewed papers regarding synthesis of inorganic nanomaterials and dye-sensitized solar cells. He presently researches perovskite solar cells and flexible solar cells.

Hiroshi Segawa (born 1961) is a professor at Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST), The University of Tokyo, Japan. He obtained his Ph.D. in Molecular Engineering from Graduate School of Engineering of Kyoto University in 1989 and was Research Associate (1989-1995) at the division of Molecular Engineering of Graduate School of Engineering at Kyoto University. He held an additional researcher post (1994-1997) of PRESTO project of Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST). In 1995 he joined the University of Tokyo as Associate Professor of Department of Chemistry at Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. From 1997 he has also been in charge of Department of Applied Chemistry at Graduate School of Engineering. In 2006 Professor Segawa joined the three faculties of RCAST, Department of Chemistry at Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and Department of Applied Chemistry at Graduate School of Engineering at the University of Tokyo. In 2010, he was appointed director of Academic-Industrial Joint Laboratory for Renewable Energy of RCAST. Currently he is one of core researcher of FIRST Program (Funding Program for World-Leading Innovative R&D on Science and Technology) which is selected top 30 researchers with highest potential from various science fields by Cabinet office, Government of Japan. He is one of the experts in the field of electrochemical solar cells. His research group are focused on construction of photo-energy conversion system. Currently the object is the efficiency enhancement of the meso-structured solar cells. Additionally, he is developing an energy-storable dye-sensitized solar cell.

Dr. Annalisa Bruno is an Associate Professor  Nanyang Technological University (ERI@N), coordinating a team working on perovskite solar cells and modules by thermal evaporation. Annalisa is also a tenured Scientist at the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy, and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA). Previously, Annalisa was a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at Imperial College London. Annalisa received her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. Degrees in Physics from the University of Naples Federico II. Her research interests include perovskite light-harvesting and charge generation properties and their implementation in solar cells and optoelectronic devices.

Prof. Marina Freitag is a Professor of Energy and a Royal Society University Research Fellow at Newcastle University. She is developing new light-driven technologies that incorporate coordination polymers to solve the most important challenges in the research area, including issues of sustainability, stability and performance of hybrid PV. The development of such highly innovative concepts has given Marina international recognition, including recipient of the prestigious 2022 Royal Society of Chemistry Harrison-Meldola Memorial Prize 2022.

Her research into hybrid molecular devices, began during her doctoral studies (2007-2011, Rutgers University, NJ, USA) where she was awarded an Electrochemical Society Travel Award and Dean Dissertation Fellowship 2011. Dr Freitag moved to Uppsala University (2013-2015) for a postdoctoral research position, which focused on the implementation of alternative redox mediators, leading to a breakthrough today known as “zombie solar cells”. Dr Freitag was invited to further develop this work at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) with Prof. Anders Hagfeldt ( 2015-2016). From 2016-2020 she was appointed as Assistant Professor at Uppsala University, Sweden, where she received the Göran Gustaffsson Young Researcher Award 2019.

Dr. Zhanglin Guo is currently an assistant professor (tenure track) at Kyushu University. His research interests are perovskite solar cells.

The author was graduated from Osaka University in 1978 and received Ph.D from Osaka University in 1983. He joined R&D Center in Toshiba from 1978 to 2000, during which the author was engaged in development of ULSI lithography, solar cells direct methanol fuel cells, and polysilane. He joined polysilane research in Robert West group of Wisconsin University (US) from 1988 to 1990. He was a professor of Kyushu Institute of Technology (National Institute) since 2001. From 2019, the author is a professor in The University of Electro-Communications in Japan. His research interest is printable solar cells.

Min Jae Ko is a Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Hanyang University, Korea, and the Director of the BK21 Education & Research Center for Advanced Materials toward Carbon Neutrality. He is also a member of the National Academy of Engineering of Korea and will serve as the President of the Korea Photovoltaic Society in 2026. He received his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Seoul National University in 2001 and subsequently conducted postdoctoral research in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2001–2004). He then joined Samsung Electronics Co. as a Senior Research Engineer in 2005, and later served as a Principal Scientist at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) from 2008 to 2017 before joining Hanyang University in 2017. His research focuses on the development of materials and processes for next-generation energy conversion devices. He has published more than 230 peer-reviewed SCI journal papers and holds 50 registered patents.

Dr Ma is a professor of chemistry and PhD supervisor at Kyushu Institute of Technology, in Japan Since 2013-present. She works at the Graduate School of Life Science and Systems Engineering. Japan. Professor Ma spent 25 years researching new concept solar cell and photocatalyst and energy storage in Japan and abroad. Professor Ma is also a council member of the following organizations: Japan Society for Chemistry: Materials Research Society US, China Energy Society, China Solar Energy, and so on. She leads her research teams studying dye-sensitized solar cells and perovskite solar cells, also including development of electrochemistry catalysts, hydrogen production, fuel cell, and metal batteries. She has published over 300 papers and 10 books.

Tsutomu (Tom) Miyasaka received his Doctor of Engineering from The University of Tokyo in 1981. He joined Fuji Photo Film, Co., conducting R&Ds on high sensitivity photographic materials, lithium-ion secondary batteries, and design of an artificial photoreceptor, all of which relate to electrochemistry and photochemistry. In 2001, he moved to Toin University of Yokohama (TUY), Japan, as professor in Graduate School of Engineering to continue photoelectrochemistry. In 2006 to 2009 he was the dean of the Graduate School. In 2004 he has established a TUY-based company, Peccell Technologies, serving as CEO. In 2005 to 2010 he served as a guest professor at The University of Tokyo.

His research has been focused to light to electric energy conversion involving photochemical processes by enhancing rectified charge transfer at photo-functional interfaces of semiconductor electrodes. He has contributed to the design of low-temperature solution-printing process for fabrication of dye-sensitized solar cells and solid-state hybrid photovoltaic (PV) cells. Since the discovery of the organic inorganic hybrid perovskite as PV material in 2006 and fabrication of high efficiency PV device in 2012, his research has moved to R&Ds of the lead halide perovskite PV device. He has promoted the research field of perovskite photovoltaics by organizing international conferences and by publishing many papers on enhancement of PV efficiency and durability, overall citation number of which is reaching more than 5,000 times. In 2009 he was awarded a Ministry of Science & Education prize on his achievements of green sustainable solar cell technology. In 2017 he received Chemical Society of Japan (CSJ) Award. He is presently directing national research projects funded by Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

Hideo Ohkita is a Professor in the Department of Polymer Chemistry at Kyoto University.  He obtained a Doctoral degree in 1997 at Kyoto University.  He became an Assistant Professor in 1997, was promoted to Associate Professor in 2006, and to Professor of Department of Polymer Chemistry at Kyoto University in 2016.  He concurrently worked as an academic visitor with Professor Durrant at Imperial College London from 2005 to 2006, and as a researcher in the Precursory Research for Embryonic Science and Technology (PRESTO) program “Photoenergy Conversion Systems and Materials for the Next Generation Solar Cells”, Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), from 2009 to 2015.  His research interests include studying photophysics and photochemistry in polymer systems.  His current research focuses on spectroscopic approach to polymer solar cells.

Nam-Gyu Park is professor and SKKU-Fellow at School of Chemical Engineering and adjunct professor at Department of Energy Science, Sungkyunkwan University. He got Ph.D. in Inorganic Solid State Chemistry from Seoul National University in 1995. He worked at ICMCB-CNRS, France, from 1996 to 1997 and at National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA, from 1997 to 1999 as postdoctoral researchers. He worked as Director of Solar Cell Research Center at Korea Institute of Science and Technology from 2005 to 2009 and as a principal scientist at Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute from 2000 to 2005 before joining Sungkyunkwan University in 2009. He has been doing researches on high efficiency mesoscopic solar cells including perovskite solar cell and dye-sensitized solar cell since 1997. He is pioneer in solid state perovskite solar cell, which was first developed in 2012. He received awards, including Scientist Award of the Month (MEST, Korea), KyungHyang Electricity and Energy Award (KEPCO, Korea), KIST Award of the Year (KIST, Korea) and Dupont Science and Technology Award (Dupont Korea), SKKU fellowship, and MRS Outstanding Research Award (MRS, Boston) and WCPEC Paper Award (Kyoto, Japan). He published over 230 scientific papers, including Science, Nature Materials, Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Energy and Nature Communications, 80 patent applications and 8 book chapters. He received H-index of 67 as of May, 2017.

Atsushi Wakamiya received his Ph.D. degree from Kyoto University in 2003. He began his academic carreer at Nagoya University as an assistant professor in 2003. In 2010, he moved to Kyoto University as an associate professor and was promoted to full professor in 2018. He received several awards: The Chemical Society of Japan Award for Creative Work (2020), Commendation for Science and Technology by MEXT Japan: Award for Science and Technology Research Category (2022), etc. He is a project leader of the Green Innovation Program (NEDO) and JST-Mirai Program. He is a co-founder and a director (as Chief Scientific Officer, CSO) of “EneCoat Technologies, Co. Ltd.”, a startup company for perovskite solar modules. His research interests include physical organic chemistry, elemental chemistry and materials chemistry.

Juan Bisquert (pHD Universitat de València, 1991) is a Distinguished Research Professor at Instituto de Tecnología Química (Universitat Politècnica de València-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas). He is Executive Editor for Europe of the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. He has been distinguished in the list of Highly Cited Researchers from 2014 to 2024. The research activity of Juan Bisquert has been focused on the application of measurement techniques and physical modeling in several areas of energy devices materials, using organic and hybrid semiconductors as halide perovskite solar cells. Currently the main research topic aims to create miniature devices that operate as neurons and synapses for bio-inspired neuromorphic computation related to data sensing and image processing. The work on this topic combines harnessing hysteresis and memory properties of ionic-electronic conducting devices as memristors and transistors towards computational networks. The work is supported by European Research Council Advanced Grant.

Ludmila Cojocaru is Associate Professor at Komaba Institute for Science at  the University of Tokyo.  She received her PhD from Bordeaux University (France) in physical chemistry of condensed materials and their application in liquid-state dye-sensitized solar cells. Subsequently, she was awarded by the Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) as a post-doc fellow in the framework of the Japanese-French Associate Laboratory for Next Generation Photovoltaic Cells (LIA Next-PV) (LiaNextPV) at the University of Tokyo, and then, continued working in a national (NEDO) Japanese project at the same University. Her work in Japan focused on the solidification of liquid-state dye-sensitized solar cells then moved to the perovskite solar cells. Working in the field of perovskite solar cells since the early stage of their discovery, she concentrated her work on the fabrication of high-performance devices, focusing on the interface engineering of perovskite and providing a possible reason for the origin of IV hysteresis. Later, she moved to the University of Freiburg (Germany), focusing on the evaporation of perovskite for tandem solar cells application, working in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy (Germany). She also worked as a Junior Researcher at Bordeaux University (France) in an Initiative of Excellence “Make Our Planet Great Again”, where she was engaged in a project focused on the fabrication of sustainable energy conversion-storage devices by combining perovskite solar cells and supercapacitors, devices connected through a common electrode based on carbon extracted from biomass. Her current research focuses on fabricating sustainable perovskite solar cells and developing lead-free absorbers. She started at Toin University of Yokohama and continues this work at the University of Tokyo.

Iván Mora-Seró (1974, M. Sc. Physics 1997, Ph. D. Physics 2004) is researcher at Universitat Jaume I de Castelló (Spain). His research during the Ph.D. at Universitat de València (Spain) was centered in the crystal growth of semiconductors II-VI with narrow gap. On February 2002 he joined the University Jaume I. From this date until nowadays his research work has been developed in: electronic transport in nanostructured devices, photovoltaics, photocatalysis, making both experimental and theoretical work. Currently he is associate professor at University Jaume I and he is Principal Researcher (Research Division F4) of the Institute of Advanced Materials (INAM). Recent research activity was focused on new concepts for photovoltaic conversion and light emission based on nanoscaled devices and semiconductor materials following two mean lines: quantum dot solar cells with especial attention to sensitized devices and lead halide perovskite solar cells and LEDs, been this last line probably the current hottest topic in the development of new solar cells.