People

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PhD Students

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Undergraduate and BS/MS Students

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Alumni (PhD)

Sherif Khalifa PhD 2022
Thesis Title: Environmental Sustainability of Emerging Solar Photovoltaic Technologies
Next Position: NREL postdoctoral study

Mohammad Mehdi Taheri, PhD 2021
Thesis title: Investigating Carrier Dynamics in Photovoltaic Materials
Next position: First Solar

Siming Li, PhD 2019
Thesis title: Ultrafast Carrier Dynamics within Photovoltaic Absorbers
Next position: Postdoc at National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Sergey Y. Smolin, PhD 2017
Thesis title: Dynamic Optoelectronic Properties in Perovskite Oxide Thin Films Measured with Ultrafast Transient Absorption & Reflectance Spectroscopy
Next position: Intel

Borirak Opasanont, PhD 2014
Thesis title: Dynamics of Chemical Bath Deposition of Inorganic Thin Films for Photovoltaic Applications
Next position: Alta Devices. Now at Apple.

Michael E. Edley, PhD 2016
Thesis title: Interfacial Engineering and Charge Carrier Dynamics in Extremely Thin Absorber Solar Cells
Next position: Tokyo Electronics. Now at Broadcom.

Hasti Majidi, PhD 2012
Thesis title: Extremely Thin Absorber Solar Cells
Next position: Alta Devices, Quantupscape Now at Applied Materials.

Kevin McPeak, PhD 2010
Thesis title: Chemical Bath Deposition of Semiconductor Thin Films and Nanostructures in Novel Microreactors
Next position: Postdoc at ETH Zurich. Now Associate Professor at Louisiana State University.

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Alumni (Undergraduate and BS/MS with thesis or first-author papers)

Crystal Jain
Thesis Title: Controlling Crystallization of Methylammonium Lead Iodide
Next Position: Semiconductor Process Engineer at Teledyne Scientific and Imaging

Triet ‘Tony’ Truong
Thesis Title: Quantifying Recombination in CdTe Photovoltaics Using umerical Simulation of Transient Spectroscopy Data
Next Position: Quantumscape

Ryan Miller
Thesis Title:
Next Position: Process Engineer at Kline Process Systems

Jesse Efymow
Thesis Title:
Next Position: PhD Student at University of Pennsylvania

Kristine Loh, BS/MS 2020
Thesis title: Optimization of Photodetection Analysis for MXene Thin Films
Next position: PhD student at Univ. of Minnesota

Kejun Chen, BS 2018
Thesis title: Fabrication of Semiconducting Thin Films by Continuous Flow Electrophoretic Deposition
Next position: PhD student at Colorado School of Mines

Anthony Abel, BS/MS 2017
Thesis title: Solution Deposited and Modified Hematite for Enhanced Solar Water Splitting
Next position: PhD student at UC Berkeley

Anjli Patel, BS 2016
Paper title: Enhanced Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting Via SILAR-Deposited Ti-Doped Hematite Thin Films with an FeOOH Overlayer
Next position: PhD student at Stanford Univ.

Treaver Jones, MS 2014
Thesis title: Electrochemical Characterization of CdSe-Coated ZnO Nanowire Extremely Thin Absorber Solar Cells
Next position: Green Mountain Energy

Thomas Messager, MS 2014
Thesis title: Study of Surface Treatments on Thin Film Hematite for Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting

Ivan Garcia Torregrosa, MS 2013
Thesis title: Influence of morphology and oxide interlayers on hematite photoanodes for water splitting
Next position: PhD student at Utrecht Univ., Netherlands

Leah Spangler, BS/MS 2013
Thesis title: Interfacial Layers in Extremely Thin Absorber Solar Cells
Next position: PhD student at Lehigh Univ.

Erwin Fernandez, MS 2012 (co-advised by Prof. Steve May, MSE)
Thesis title: Control of Photoexcited Carrier Dynamics via A-site Isovalent Substitution in LaFeO₃ Perovskite Thin Films

Tyler Perlenfein, BS/MS 2012
Thesis title: Fabrication and Characterization of Organic Photovoltaics
Next position: PhD student at Univ. of Wisconsin

Thinh Le, BS/MS 2011
Thesis title: Synthesis and Characterization of CuSCN for Extremely Thin Absorber Solar Cells
Next position: PhD student at Penn State.ll Univ.

Ishai Padawer, BS/MS 2009
Thesis title: Synthesis and Characterization of CdSe-Coated ZnO Nanowires for Extremely Thin Absorber Solar Cells

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We appreciate the contributions of all of our present and past lab members, including dozens of other undergraduate and visiting researchers not explicitly listed here.