Alumni

Imran Khan obtained his BS from Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology. He completed his MS and PhD at University of South Florida, focusing on the development of dye sensitized solar cells and Cadmium Telluride solar cells respectively. As a post doc at NREL, his work involved the synthesis and characterization of novel ternary nitride thin films as solar cell absorber, and the optimization of contact/buffer layer for photo-electrochemical water splitting devices.

After NREL Imran became a process engineer at Intel

Zhifei Li joined NREL as a postdoc in June 2019. He obtained his PhD from Oregon State University where he focused on carbon anodes for sodium-ion and potassium-ion batteries. Before joining NREL, he studied SEI formation of Si anode in lithium-ion batteries as a postdoc at UW-Madison from August 2018 to June 2019. He focused at NREL on using thin film Si as model anode for SEI study.

After NREL Zhifei became a senior battery engineer at Aspen Aerogel

Yun Xu was a postdoc at NREL from November 2016 to June 2019. She was working on energy storage materials for lithium ion batteries, solar thermochemical hydrogen production (STCH), and electro-catalyst. She deposited ‘’hyper-reactive’’ lithium silicon alloys for LIBs, various oxides for STCH, and FeN thin film for oxygen reduction reaction electro-catalyst. After NREL, Yun joined Evergrande company in China, to work on development of electric vehicles.

After NREL Yun Xu became a battery researcher at Evegrande, China

Conor Riley was a post-doctoral researcher at NREL in 2018. He obtained a Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego. His research interests focused on the application of high-throughput fabrication and characterization to study the optical and electrical properties of thin films and interfaces. At NREL, he carried out combinatorial research to study anti-soiling and anti-reflection layers applied to photovoltaics and the effects of additives on the sinterability and ionic conductivity of ceramic electrolytes in solid oxide electrolyzers.

After NREL, Conor joined an industrial company in the Bay Area

Sebastian Siol was a postdoc at NREL from 2014 to 2017 after finishing his Ph.D. at the Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany. At NREL Sebastian worked on the HT discovery of novel chalcogenides .Among other materials he investigated Sn(Ca,S)-, as well as (Sn,Mn)(Se,Te)-alloys using combinatorial sputter deposition.

After leaving NREL, Sebastian became a Postdoc at EMPA, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology.

André Bikowski was a postdoc at NREL from 2014 to 2015, after finishing his Ph.D. at the Humboldt University of Berlin in Germany. He mainly investigated (Sn,Ti)3N4 and (Sn,Zn)O for the use as energy conversion materials. The films were deposited using combinatorial reactive sputtering and analysed by various techniques regarding their electronic, optical and structural properties.

After NREL, Andre joined an industrial company in Germany

Meagan Papac was a PhD student at Colorado School of Mines. She was investigating composition/performance relationships in triple ionic-electronic conducting oxides for protonic ceramic fuel cell applications. She synthesized thin films via pulsed laser deposition and developed a combinatorial impedance spectroscopy method for experiments with temperature and gas environment control.

Celeste Melamed was a Ph.D. student in Materials Science at the Colorado School of Mines studying photovoltaic materials. She performed high throughput combinatorial sputtering of ternary nitrides such as ZnSnN2 and ZnGeN2 at NREL for next-generation optoelectronics. Additionally, she has expertise in bulk single crystal growth and exfoliation of 2D materials for PV applications. She received a B.S. in Physics from Harvey Mudd College in 2015.

Dr. Angela Fioretti earned her PhD in Materials Science from Colorado School of Mines in 2017. Her graduate work focused on combinatorial development of the ternary nitride semiconductor ZnSnN₂ for photovoltaic absorber applications. She is currently a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland, working on development of novel carrier selective contact materials for solar cells.

From 2013 to 2015 Adam Welch completed a joint Ph.D. project at NREL and the Colorado School of Mines, studying ternary Cu-Sb-(S,Se) materials for thin film solar cell applications using combinatorial sputtering. Currently, Adam is an R&D Engineer working on renewable liquid fuels at Starfire Energy Inc.

Dr. Lauryn Baranowski earned her PhD in Materials Science from Colorado School of Mines in 2015. Her graduate work was performed at NREL, and focused on the use of combinatorial sputtering to develop Cu-Sn-S compounds as earth abundant photovoltaic absorbers. After a postdoc appointment at CU Boulder, Lauryn became a battery engineer at Staq Energy, where she works to develop large scale alkaline battery technologies.

Archana Subramaniyan was a Ph.D. student at Colorado School of Mines, doing research at NREL from 2011 to 2014. Her Ph.D. work was focused on synthesis and characterization of Cu2O materials as well as (Cu,Zn)2O and Zn(O,S) alloys prepared by combinatorial sputtering. After graduation, she joined IBM and subsequently GlobalFoundries working on ALD of oxides.

Christopher Caskey was a graduate student at CSM, doing research at NREL on Cu3N, Sn3N4 and related materials in 2011-2014. Currently, Christopher specializes in inorganic chemistry for sustainable energy, large data sets for materials discovery and optimization, technology innovation, start-ups, and the invention-to-market process. He is presently a Research Assistant Professor at Colorado School of Mines and sits on the board of the Western Slope Conservation Center.

Josh Ford was a PhD student at NREL from 2011 to 2015. Initially, he worked on ambient temperature growth and characterization of the Zn-Ni-Co-O material system. He then transitioned to process development for the growth of oxide-sulfide compounds using combinatorial sputtering combined with a RF solids single atom sulfur source. His focus was on synthesizing Bi-O-S and BiCuOS. After graduation, he began working as a diffusion process engineer for Infineon.

Andrea Crovetto is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie research fellow at NREL and the Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin (Germany). He received his Ph.D. from the Technical University of Denmark (group of Ole Hansen) focusing on Cu2ZnSnS4 solar cells. He then joined the group of Ib Chorkendorff at the Technical University of Denmark as a postdoc, working on new wide band gap photoabsorbers for tandem water splitting. In his current project at NREL, he is exploring inorganic phosphides as potential p-type transparent conductors.

Rachel Woods-Robinson received her B.S. in Physics from UCLA. Since 2016, she is a Chancellor’s Fellow and NSF Graduate Fellow Ph.D. student in Applied Science and Technology (AS&T) at UC Berkeley and NREL. Her research applies high-throughput materials computation, synthesis, and characterization to study materials for renewable energy and optoelectronic applications, in particular p-type transparent sulfide and chalcogenide materials, such as (Zn,Cu)S.

Hiroshi Yanagi is a visiting professor from the University of Yamanashi, Japan, working on exploring new functional crystalline/amorphous oxide semiconductors as well as sulfide semiconductors. He was a postdoc at Oregon State University from 2001 to 2003 with Janet Tate, after obtaining his Ph.D. from Tokyo Tech. with Hideo Hosono. He started a collaboration project with NREL on n-type SnS thin film fabrication together with Prof. Sakiko Kawanishi and Prof. Issei Suzuki in 2018.

Sakiko Kawanishi is a visiting assistant professor from Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials (IMRAM) in Tohoku University, Japan. Her work focuses on crystal growth of widegap semiconductors, such as SiC and AlN. She started a collaboration project with NREL on n-type SnS thin film fabrication in 2018.

Issei Suzuki is a visiting assistant professor from Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials (IMRAM) in Tohoku University, Japan. His work focuses on exploration of novel inorganic semiconductors, such as ternary oxide semiconductors with wurtzite-based crystal structures, and analysis of their physical properties by both experimental and theoretical ways. He started a collaboration project with NREL on n-type SnS thin film fabrication in 2018.

Ling Fei is a visiting assistant professor from University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Her work focuses on the design, synthesis, and engineering of nanostructured materials for energy storage and conversion application. She started a NSF-funded collaboration project with NREL on the organic and inorganic interface properties of solid state electrolyte in 2019.

Jed LaCoste is a visting master's candiate from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette working under his advisor Dr. Ling Fei. His work focuses on the fabrication, characterization, and the implimentation of solid electrolytes for all solid state lithium ion batteries. He started on a collaborative project with NREL in April 2019 to investigate the interfacial properties of organic and inorganic electrolytes in hybrid solid electrolytes.

Vineetha Vinayakumar was a visiting PhD. Student from Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon (UANL), Mexico. Since she joined at NREL in September 2018, investigation on ZnSnN₂ based solar cells obtained by combinatorial method was her main focus. Besides, she is also interested working on chalcogenide-based absorber materials for PV applications.

Jekyung Kim was a visiting student from Korea Advanced Institute Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea. He worked at NREL on ternary transition metal nitrides, mainly MgZrN2. During his stay, he studied the effects of oxygen and hydrogen on MgZrN2 grown by combinatorial sputtering

Yanbing Han is a visiting PhD student from Fudan University, China. Since the time he joined NREL in 2016, he works on the p-type chalcogenide semiconductors like Ba-Cu-S, (Mn,Zn)Te, which are prepared by combinatorial sputtering.

Bethany Matthews was a visiting graduate student from Oregon State University, during Spring-Fall 2016. Bethany was working on combinatorial synthesis of nitride materials using sputtering, and on TEM analysis

Hong Zhang received his Ph.D. in Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany in 2016. His research was focused on exploring electronic and optical properties of polymer semiconductor materials and organic-inorganic hybrid systems. He was an intern at NREL from 06/2016 to 09/2016, where he researched in the areas of novel Sb2Se3 thin film synthesis methods and characterizations for inorganic thin film devices.

Kasper Borup was a visiting postdoc at Colorado School of Mines in 2016, working at NREL on thing films of Sb2S3, Sb2Se3 compounds and Sb2(S,Se)3 alloys. After his stay in Colorado, he moved back to Denmark to continue his research on inorganic solid state materials.

Yuki Iguchi is a doctoral student at University of Yamanashi. Yuki is researching on bulk n-type SnS and single crystal growth of n-type SnS. He worked at NREL as a intern student under Dr. Andriy Zakutayev from June to December 2016, studying Sb-based nitride materials.

Willian Lucas was a visiting student at NREL in 2014-2015 from Federal University of São Carlos, Brazil. At NREL Willian worked on CuSbS2 absorbers , and developed an annealing process to improve their quality. He also studied defects in CuSbS2.

Pravakar Prasad Rajbhandari completed BE in Electronics and Communication from Nepal in 2009 and MS in Electrical Engineering from SUNY Binghamton in 2012. He interned at NREL from Dec '14 to Apr '15. During this period, he explored Gallium doped (Zn,Mg)O through combinatorial sputter deposition for contact application in solar cells. After NREL, he went to pursue a doctoral degree at SUNY Binghamton.

Marc Daniel Heinemann was a visiting scientist at NREL in 2014. The collaboration was based on the Helmholtz-NREL Solar Initiative (HNSI). He finished his Ph.D. at the Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin in 2015. At NREL, he worked on combinatorial exploration of Ga-based amorphous oxides by combinatorial pulsed laser deposition. More recently, Marc became a scientist at Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin.