Flexible and mechanically adaptive photovoltaics are emerging as a key platform for next-generation energy systems, enabling integration beyond rigid, planar modules into curved, lightweight, and conformable applications. This symposium focuses on the fundamental and applied challenges that arise when photovoltaic devices operate under extreme mechanical constraints. Topics include materials and interfaces for mechaniacally robust solar cells, strain- and deformation-induced effects on charge transport, recombination, and defect formation, as well as scalable fabrication strategies for flexible and large-area devices. The symposium further explores system-level considerations, including ultrathin and high specific power photovoltaics for wearables, indoor energy harvesting, and aerospace applications. By bridging materials science, device physics, processing, and system integration, this symposium aims to establish a comprehensive understanding of photovoltaic operation beyond the rigid device paradigm.
- Materials and interfaces for flexible photovoltaics
- Scalable processing of flexible solar cells
- Conformable and ultrathin photovoltaic architectures
- System integration: wearables, indoor, and aerospace PV
- Strain-induced effects in photovoltaic devices
- Mechanical reliability and degradation
Dr. Stepan Demchyshyn is a postdoctoral scientist at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB), working on perovskite tandem solar cells. He completed his PhD at Johannes Kepler University Linz, where he developed ultrathin and lightweight perovskite photovoltaics for applications ranging from wearable electronics to aerospace. His research interests include flexible and ultralight photovoltaics, thin-film mechanics, solution-processed perovskite devices, and the integration of photovoltaic technologies into functional systems. He is particularly interested in how mechanical design and device architecture can enable new applications for emerging photovoltaics.
I am a postdoctoral scientist at Johannes Kepler University, Austria. My academic journey focuses on developing thin, flexible, and ultralightweight photovoltaics and electronics tailored for aerospace and wearable healthcare applications.
With my solid foundation in mechatronics (apprenticeship) and work in test bench operations for combustion engines at BRP Rotax GmbH, I bring a unique blend of hands-on experience and theoretical knowledge to my research. I have honed my skills in establishing and leading projects, and my experience in collaborating with outstanding international research groups has equipped me to thrive in diverse professional environments.
Outside academia, you'll often find me at professional GoKart racing tracks, where I offer technical support on an international level. My passion for precision and performance extends to my hobby of restoring old cars and inventing new technological solutions.
Motivated by a deep commitment to sustainability and an unyielding thirst for discovery, I continually pursue new avenues to contribute towards a more sustainable future.
Dr. Osbel Almora completed his PhD (2020) at the Friedrich Alexander Universität (FAU) Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany, and currently holds a Ramon y Cajal Tenure Track Research Fellow position at Universitat Rovira i Virgili of Tarragona, Spain.
His research activities focus on characterization and modeling of semiconductor and energy devices, including, solar cells, X-ray detectors, light emitting diodes, and pseudocapacitors.
Christoph J. Brabec received his PhD (1995) in Physical Chemistry from Linz University, Austria and joined the group of Alan Heeger at UC Santa Barbara (USA) for a sabbatical. He joined the SIEMENS research labs (project leader) in 2001, Konarka in 2004 (CTO), Erlangen University (FAU - Professor for Material Science) in 2009, ZAE Bayern e.V. (scientific director and board member) in 2010, spokesmen of the Interdisciplinary Center for Nanostructured Films (IZNF) in 2013 and became director at FZ Jülich (IEK-11) in 2018. In 2018 he was further appointed as Honorary Professor at the University of Groningen, Netherlands. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and a regular member of the Bavarian Academy of Science.
His research interests include all aspects of solution processing organic, hybrid and inorganics semiconductor devices with a strong focus on photovoltaics and renewable energy systems. A major research interest are scalable processing technologies allowing to control microstructure formation in disordered semiconductors. A very recent activity exploresthe limitation of autonomous operating research line for accelerating innovation and inventions in materials science. His combined scientific and technological interests supported the spin-out of several companies. He published over 1000 articles, thereof over 900 peer reviewed articles, about 100 patents, several books and book chapters and overall received 100.000 citations. His h-index is over 150 and Thompson Reuters HRC lists him for the last years consecutively as a highly cited researcher.
After her PhD degree in Telecommunications and Microelectronics Engineering on flexible dye solar cells, awarded by University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’ in 2014, Dr De Rossi spent nearly 4 years abroad, working as a Technology Transfer Fellow in SPECIFIC Innovation and Knowledge Centre at Swansea University (UK). She was part of the PV team led by Prof T.M. Watson, focusing on the upscaling of printable perovskite solar cells, and lead of the stability activity within his group.
She is currently a fixed term researcher (RTDa) in the group led by Prof F. Brunetti, working on smart designed, fully printed flexible perovskite solar cells and photocapacitors.
Dr. Fan Fu is a group leader at Empa-Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees in materials science from the Wuhan University of Technology in 2010 and 2013, respectively. He joined Prof. Ayodhya N. Tiwari's group as a Ph.D. student in 2014 and earned his Ph.D. degree from ETH Zürich with distinction in 2017. His doctoral thesis on perovskite-CIGS thin-film tandem solar cells was awarded ETH Medal. From January 2018 to May 2019, he worked as a postdoc researcher in Prof. Christophe Ballif's group at EPFL. In June 2019, he joined Empa as a group leader. He is currently leading a research team investigating novel perovskite semiconductors for energy and optoelectronics applications. In particular, his group's recent research efforts focus on upscaling high-performance perovskite-based tandem solar cells and mini-modules on flexible substrates.
Mei GaoMartin Kaltenbrunner is a full professor at the Johannes Kepler University Linz, heading the Soft Matter Physics Division and the LIT Soft Materials Lab. Prof. Kaltenbrunnerreceived his master’s and PhD degrees in physics from the Johannes Kepler University in 2008 and 2012 working with Siegfried Bauer. He then joined the Someya-Sekitani Lab for Organic Electronics at The University of Tokyo as postdoctoral researcher, leading the “Imperceptible Electronics Team”. Returning to JKU in 2014 as Assistant Professor, he obtained Habilitation (Venia Docendi) in Experimental Physics in “Soft Electronics” in 2016. In 2019, he was appointed Full Professor at the Johannes Kepler University. His research group specializes in soft electronics and soft transducers, in particular on sustainable and biodegradable elastic materials and processes for skin-inspired electronics and embodied robotics. They are pioneers in soft and stretchable batteriesand solar cells as well as ultrathin and lightweight electronic foils. The group develops materials strategies, design rules and technologies including resilient yet degradable soft and elastic substrates, passive and active components and power sources that enable green wearable (bio)electronics and soft robots. Kaltenbrunner is on the editorial board of Advanced Materials, Advanced Science, Advanced Intelligent Systemsand Advanced Robotics Research, recipient of a Starting Grant of the European Research Council, has published >85papers and given over 80 invited/keynote/plenary lectures.
Dr. Felix Lang is heads the ROSI (Radiation-Tolerant Electronics with Soft Semiconductors) Group in the Physics and Optoelectronics of Soft Matter Department at the University of Potsdam. Felix Lang earned his degree in Physics from Technische Universität München and Freie Universität Berlin, and his Ph.D. from the Technical University Berlin. He then conducted his Ph.D. research on the stability and degradation of perovskite solar cells at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin.
Following his Ph.D., Dr. Lang was awarded a Feodor-Lynen Fellowship, which he used to conduct further research in the group of Prof. S. Stranks at the Cavendish Laboratory of the University of Cambridge, UK. There, he worked on testing and developing next-generation perovskite tandem photovoltaics for space photovoltaics. After completing his fellowship, Dr. Lang returned to Germany with a return fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and joined the University of Potsdam to focus on a deeper understanding of the degradation, working, and loss mechanisms of perovskite-based tandem photovoltaics.
Dr. Lang's work in this field earned him a prestigious Freigeist-Fellowship from the Volkswagen Stiftung. Currently, Felix Lang is setting up the Tolerant Electronics with Soft Semiconductors Group at the University of Potsdam.
Dr Vanira Trifiletti earned a degree in Material Science from the University of Milano Bicocca (2011). She worked as a research assistant until 2013, when she started the PhD. It was developed at IIT Research Centre for Bio-Molecular Nanotechnology and CNR-Nanotec, under the University of Salento's patronage. Then research fellow at the University of Milano Bicocca at the Materials Science Department until 2019. Until February 2021, she was a Marie Skłodowska Curie Action fellow at the School of Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary University of London. She is currently employed as a research assistant at the Materials Science Department of the University of Milano Bicocca. Scientific interests include nanostructured-materials for renewable energy applications, hybrid photovoltaics and thermoelectrics, device design and development, sol-gel synthesis, and chemical-physical analysis.