Hugh W. Hillhouse is a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Washington and currently holds the Harry A. and Metta R. Rehnberg Endowed Chair Professorship. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Clemson University in 1995. He earned a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Washington in 1996 while studying colloidal phenomena under John Berg and then earned a Doctorate in Chemical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 2000, working with Michael Tsapatsis and Jan van Egmond on the self-assembly of nanostructured thin films. In parallel with his doctoral research, he earned a Master's in Physics from the University of Massachusetts in 2000 working with Mark Tuominen focusing on nanoscopic physics and thermoelectric phenomena. He then received an NSF International Postdoctoral Fellowship with which he focused on nanoscopic physics and organic semiconductors at the Kavli Institute for Nanoscience in the Netherlands working with Teun Klapwijk. In 2002, he joined the faculty of Chemical Engineering at Purdue University. His research group focused on nanostructured thin films, nanowire arrays, semiconductor nanocrystals, and solar cells. He spent a year on sabbatical in 2008 at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden Colorado working with Matt Beard and Art Nozik on multiple exciton generation and quantum dot solar cells, and moved to the University of Washington in 2010 as the Rehnberg Chair Professor.

His research publications have garnered over 8,200 citations with an h-index of 41 (see Google Scholar Page for up to date information). Some awards he has received include: the CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation, the Early Career Research Excellence Award from Purdue University, the Shreve Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, the Sharma Medal from the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers, Scialog Fellowship from Research Corporation for Science Advancement, and the Outstanding Young Alumni Award from Clemson University. He has also served on the editorial advisory board for Chemistry of Materials and served as the Thin Film Thrust leader for the Bay Area Photovoltaic Consortium.

His current research and teaching interests lie at the nexus of nanoscience and energy conversion to address challenging environmental problems (climate change, environmental pollutants, etc.). He and his group are focused on developing sustainable and economic methods that yield high-efficiency low-cost solar cells (hybrid perovskite, CIGS, CZTS, and tandems) and on novel electrochemical and photoelectrochemical devices to solve energy and environmental challenges. In addition to his research and teaching roles with the University, he also consults for companies and serves as an advisor, vetting technology for investors, on topics in nanotech and cleantech including photovoltaics, novel solar energy conversion schemes, and semiconducting nanocrystals and nanowires.