UK Professor awarded for his leading work on Solar PV!

Professor Henry Snaith has been presented with the Materials Research Society’s (MRS) distinguished Outstanding Young Investigator Award for his work on the development of perovskite-based solar cells.

The prestigious award was announced at the 2014 MRS Spring Meeting’s Awards Ceremony & Plenary Session which was held in San Francisco. The Professor of physics at Oxford University is introducing a new generation of thin-film – low cost photovoltaic technology that can simply be integrated into the glass exteriors of buildings.

The Professor’s technology recently reached power conversion efficiencies of 17% and is set to transform the Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) Industry, along with utility applications.

Talking about the award, he said: “I am delighted to be held in such esteem by the Materials Research Society. It is a great honor to receive the award and recognition such as this really helps to raise the profile of the exciting developments we are making in solar technology which we believe will result in a transformational change across the world.”

The MRS Outstanding Young Investigator Award acknowledges ‘outstanding, interdisciplinary scientific work in materials research by a young scientist or engineer.’ The award recipient ‘must also show exceptional promise as a developing leader in the materials area.’

Professor Snaith’s work has previously been recognised back in 2012, when he was awarded the Institute of Physics’ Patterson Medal, and in 2013, Nature magazine included him in its esteemed yearly list of ten people who have made a difference to science – the only UK scientist to be included!

Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Oxford PV, Kevin Arthur, commented on Snaith’s award: “We’re obviously delighted for Henry’s work to be recognised in this way and it helps raise the profile of this ground-breaking technology. We’re making rapid progress towards commercialisation and expect to sign the first licensing deal with a glass manufacturer during 2015. As efficiencies continue to rise, we’re looking at utility applications, alongside the BIPV market, and are extremely optimistic that our product will be in use by 2017 or even sooner.”