As photovoltaic technologies diversify, the design and optimization of materials tailored for specific applications become crucial. This symposium focuses on advanced materials and device architectures developed to meet the distinct requirements of emerging PV applications — from integration into everyday environments to operation under extreme conditions. Contributions are welcome on all types of PV technologies, including silicon, III-V, CIGS, perovskite, organic, and dye-sensitized and tandem systems. Topics of interest include materials and interfaces for Building-Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV), such as semitransparent and color-tunable absorbers; materials engineering for Indoor PV optimized under low-light spectra; and innovations enabling AgriPV and PV–battery hybrid systems. We also invite research on functional materials for solar-to-fuel conversion, wearable and flexible PV for portable electronics, and robust PV architectures for space and underwater operation. Emphasis will be placed on understanding the interplay between composition, stability, and performance in non-conventional environments. The symposium aims to bring together materials scientists, device engineers, and application specialists to advance the rational design of photovoltaic materials enabling new frontiers in energy harvesting and integration.
- Advanced materials design and interface engineering for emergent PV technologies (perovskite, organic, tandem architecture, CIGS, III V, DSSC, Si-based).
- Semitransparent and color-tunable absorbers for Building-Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV).
- Materials optimization for Indoor Photovoltaics operating under low and artificial illumination.
- Photovoltaic materials and architectures for AgriPV and energy–food co-production systems.
- Coupled PV–battery and hybrid materials for integrated energy harvesting and storage.
- Photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical materials for solar-to-fuel conversion.
- Flexible, wearable, and lightweight PV materials for portable and self-powered devices.
- Robust and stable materials for extreme environments: space, underwater, and harsh terrestrial conditions
Jessica Barichello, PhD, is a researcher at the CNR–Institute of Structure of Matter (Rome, Tor Vergata), where she focuses on the development and characterization of perovskite solar cells. She earned her PhD in Environmental Sciences from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, with research spanning the transition from dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) to perovskite photovoltaics. Over the years, she has built extensive expertise in third-generation PV technologies, including perovskites, DSSCs, and semi-transparent devices for building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV). Her career includes both academic and industrial research experience (postdoctoral researcher at the University of Rome “Tor Vergata” and researcher at G+Lyte), working on device and module fabrication, upscaling, and optoelectronic characterization. She is the author of 30+ peer-reviewed research articles. In 2025, her research received national recognition through awards such as the “Non Sprecare” Prize and the SMAU Milano “Success Case” award, acknowledging innovation and sustainability, including her role as corresponding author and principal investigator.
Dr Stefania Cacovich is currently a CNRS researcher working at IPVF. Her research activity lies in the field of the advanced characterization of hybrid and inorganic materials for photovoltaic applications by employing a multi-scale and multi-technique approach.
Her research into hybrid devices started during her doctoral studies (2014-2018), carried out at the Department of Materials Science of the University of Cambridge (UK) under the supervision of Prof Caterina Ducati. Her thesis focused on the study of the chemical, structural and morphological properties of hybrid organic-inorganic thin films and photovoltaic devices using advanced analytical electron microscopy techniques. In 2018, she moved to Paris for a postdoctoral research position at IPVF to work on multidimensional spectrally and time resolved photoluminescence imaging methods. From 2020-2022, she was Marie Curie Individual Post-doctoral fellow in Physics at CNRS (UMR 9006) with a project aimed at exploring the fundamental photophysical processes underlying the operation of advanced optoelectronic devices.
Fabio Matteocci is an Associate Professor at the University of Rome Tor Vergata. He received his M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the same university and earned his Ph.D. in 2014 at the Center for Hybrid and Organic Solar Energy (CHOSE). His research focuses on the development of scalable manufacturing processes for thin-film photovoltaic technologies and x-Ray detectors based on halide perovskites. Since 2013, his work was devoted to the fabrication, characterization and stability of perovskite solar modules. In recent years, his work has expanded to semi-transparent devices for BIPV, perovskite/c-Si tandem devices and detectors. He has authored 121 scientific publications (h-index 37) and he has been involved in several national and EU research projects contributing to the upscaling of semi-transparent perovskite solar cells.
Dr. Aslihan H. Babayigit (PhD in Sciences) is a Senior Researcher and FWO Fellow at Hasselt University (UHasselt), affiliated with PV Technology & Energy Systems (PVTech), IUMAT, and imec/EnergyVille. Trained as a biomedical materials scientist, her research focuses on understanding and controlling instability in complex perovskite systems through high-fidelity ToF-SIMS characterisation, interface engineering, and responsible materials design.
She obtained her BSc in Biomedical Sciences (2013) and MSc in Bioelectronics and Nanotechnology (magna cum laude, 2015) at UHasselt, where her award-winning master’s research provided early insights into the intrinsic thermal instability and environmental and health implications of heavy-metal-based perovskite semiconductors. In 2016, she began her FWO PhD fellowship at IUMAT, complemented by an extended research stay with Prof. Henry J. Snaith FRS at the University of Oxford. There, she developed lead-free perovskite compositions for all-perovskite tandem photovoltaics and introduced a universal, scalable gas-quenching deposition strategy enabling reproducible, high-quality thin films across laboratories.
She subsequently joined the KAUST Solar Center, contributing to high-efficiency perovskite tandem photovoltaics in collaboration with Prof. Stefaan De Wolf’s group. Her research further expanded to include environmental impact assessment, chemical engineering aspects of thin-film processing, and tandem-optimal bandgap design.
Returning to Belgium during the COVID-19 pandemic as an FWO Junior Postdoctoral Fellow, she shifted toward electronic and interface engineering in perovskite solar cells, addressing fundamental questions of charge transport, interlayer compatibility, long-term stability, and sustainable materials selection. As an FWO Senior Fellow, her current work centers on replacing unsustainable rare-metal contacts using self-assembled monolayers and elucidating their impact on ion migration—one of the key mechanisms limiting operational stability—through advanced approaches including ToF-SIMS depth profiling and simulation.
Her work has advanced the understanding of degradation pathways, materials–interface interactions, depth-profiling and thin-film processing in soft semiconductors. She has authored publications exceeding 8,500 citations, including multiple Highly Cited Papers, with contributions appearing in leading journals such as Nature Materials, Science, and Joule.
Bringing a biomedical perspective to energy materials, she treats solar cells as interacting systems rather than isolated layers, combining experimental precision with systems-level thinking and an emphasis on responsible innovation. She is actively involved in teaching and mentoring across bachelor, master, and doctoral levels, with a focus on interdisciplinarity, critical reasoning, and scientific confidence.
In parallel, she co-leads the Sc4All initiative (since 2024), a multi-faculty effort on sustainable solar cooking and energy access in Sub-Saharan Africa, developed in collaboration with the Université de Lubumbashi (DRC) and Ardhi University (Tanzania), advancing context-specific solutions for low-resource environments.
Dr. Babayigit was selected as a Young Scientist at the 73rd Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting (Physics, 2024), inaugurated as a member of the Flemish Young Academy (2025), and elected to its Board in 2026. She is also a recipient of the FWO Climate Award (2026) for her contributions to interdisciplinary energy-access research.
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.
Aruna IvaturiDean, College of Engineering/Graduate School of Engineering
Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering
Incheon National University
119 Academy Rd. Yeonsu Incheon, 22012, Korea
Morten Madsen, Professor wsr at the University of Southern Denmark, SDU NanoSYD.
My field of expertise is thin-film growth, integration and devices for energy conversion and storage applications. In 2010-2011, I worked with high performance transistors from III-V nanoscale membranes at the Javey research lab, UC Berkeley, California. In 2011, I established the OPV group at SDU NanoSYD, where we work on improving the performance and stability of organic and hybrid solar cells, including thin film synthesis, metal oxide interlayers and interfaces, organic and hybrid active layers as well as film and device degradation. Since 2016, we also have a focus on device up-scaling through Roll-to-Roll (R2R) printing technology at the SDU R2R facility. Vist out site for more details:
https://www.sdu.dk/en/om_sdu/institutter_centre/c_nanosyd/forskningsomrader/organic+solar+cells