Dr. Alan Heeger, Nobel Laureate and Professor of Physics at the University of California – Santa Barbara, visited EFRC faculty and students at The University of Texas at Austin on September 13, 2010. Dr. Heeger presented a seminar titled “Plastic Solar Cells: Self-Assembly of Bulk Heterojunction Nanomaterials by Spontaneous Phase Separation” to a group of nearly 100 scientists at UT-Austin, including the EFRC’s team of 50 junior and senior investigators. Several EFRC faculty members also discussed their most recent research results with Dr. Heeger. The visit concluded with a reception held in Dr. Heeger’s honor at the Center for Nano and Molecular Science’s Faulkner Nanoscience and Technology building on the UT-Austin campus.
Dr. Heeger is one of three outstanding scientists who received the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery and development of conductive polymers, which are the central component of modern organic photovoltaic devices (i.e., plastic solar cells). Dr. Heeger’s research has resulted in the start-up of several companies, including the Massachusetts-based solar energy company Konarka Technologies.
Several projects in Thrusts I and II of our EFRC focus on developing new synthetic routes to produce high-quality conductive polymers, as well as understanding the polymers’ molecular arrangement in organic solar cell materials and how that arrangement influences fundamental processes that occur in solar cells. Dr. Heeger is also involved in the DOE’s EFRC program as a faculty member of the EFRC Center for Energy Efficient Materials at UC-Santa Barbara.
In the above picture: Dr. Alan Heeger, second from right, visits with EFRC members Chris Bielawski, Paul Barbara and Allen Bard at UT-Austin. Dr. Heeger presented an invited seminar to EFRC faculty and students and also met with several faculty during his visit.
