Post date: Feb. 01, 2019 10:51:27 PM
After the winter brake with a visit to my family back to Europe the month of January flew with myself mostly busy to organize and teach my IAP class on Unconventional PV effects. It has been a great experience that I will keep for the rest of my life. It was great to see people interested in my teaching and it was amazing interact with students and their questions and doubts. Even if it was a small class it took me a lot of efforts and I learnt a lot. Teaching is not a simple matter. Especially if you want to do a good job.
In the mean time I have got to super exciting news. First of all, still regarding teaching, I have been included in the Spring session of the Kaufman Teaching Certificate Program (KTCP). This program is intended to develop teaching skills of MIT graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. I think this will be a great opportunity for me and my future career. I really looking forward to start this class. Second I have been notified to being accepted as a speaker for upcoming APS March meeting happening in Boston in March. That's a great opportunity for disseminate my research and gain suggestions and opinions from colleagues. Now I have only to prepare a great talk!
In the mean time in the lab my work is still progressing. Now I have a couple of established side projects/ideas which are very interesting. With these new experiments the horizons of my MSCA project are expanding considerably and I am very exited to see where I will end.
Strictly regarding my project on the the thermoelectric hybridization of solar cells, I am still continuing the characterization of all the solar cells collected along these months. Some materials resulted to be very suitable for hybridization with thermoelectrics and they are opening new possible paths to follow. One kind of solar cells of particular interest are perovskites. They seems to be an ideal candidate for hybridization with thermoelectrics. At the same time I am also expanding my array of collaborations, which is a very good thing.
Regarding my side projects, flexoelectricity is starting to become more than just an idea. The first characterization showed that the effect of strain on the thermoelectric power factor can be significant in bismuth telluride thin films. Therefore I am very interested in deepening my understanding on this effect. On the other hand I also got some new samples from my home group in Milan on which I want to measure the thermoelectric properties. This is something that is bringing me back to my PhD days. The samples are in fact the of the same kind I studied during my PhD, but with more interesting features. In my new group here at MIT we have the tools to possibly study this material, and then I want to give it a try. Lets see what we can get in the last few months !