Science Foundation Awards Collaborative Grants in Solar Energy Conversion
Tucson, AZ – Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA), the nation’s oldest foundation devoted wholly to science, announced today its latest awards for high-risk/potentially high-reward research aimed at improving efficiencies in solar energy conversion to electricity and fuels. The awards – part of RCSA’s Scialog® initiative to advance transformational research – are called the Scialog Collaborative Innovation Awards. Scialog – short for science dialog – typically funds research based on peer-reviewed proposals submitted yearly by individual early-career researchers. These latest awards, however, fund research proposed by Scialog grantees working in collaborative groups, rather than independently. The research proposals emerged from a recent three-day Scialog conference at which grantees shared knowledge, insights, and hypotheses. An additional group of renowned researchers, who joined the grantees at the conference, recommended these award-winners. Those renowned researchers were led by Dr. Nathan Lewis, the George L. Argyros Professor of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology. This year’s Scialog Collaborative Innovation Awards go to the following three teams, with each team receiving a combined grant award of $100,000 to research a specific topic:- Team 1: “Holographic Spectrum Splitting for Multijunction Organic Photovoltaics”
- Sean Shaheen, Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy, University of Denver
- Raymond Kostuk, Professor of Engineering and Optical Sciences, University of Arizona
- Christine Luscombe, Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Washington.
- Team 2: “Fractals as a Promising Geometry for Enhanced Solar Energy Conversion”
- Frank Osterloh, Professor of Inorganic Chemistry, University of California – Davis
- Sean Shaheen, Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy, University of Denver
- Richard Taylor, Professor of Physics, University of Oregon
- Boaz Ilan, Associate Professor of Applied Math, University of California – Merced.
- Team 3: “Novel Low-Loss Plasmonic Waveguides to Create High Efficiency PV from Ultra-Thin Organic and Low-Purity Earth Abundant Inorganic Layers”
- Janelle Leger, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Western Washington University
- Christine Luscombe, Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Washington
- Hugh Hillhouse, Rehnberg Chair Professor of Chemical Engineering, University of Washington.
