Author Biographies

Allen J. Bard was born in New York City on December 18, 1933. He attended The City College of the College of New York (B.S., 1955) and Harvard University (M.A., 1956, PhD., 1958). Dr. Bard joined the faculty at The University of Texas at Austin in 1958. He has been the Hackerman-Welch Regents Chair in Chemistry at UT since 1985. He has worked as mentor and collaborator with over 80 PhD students, 17 M.S. students, over 150 postdoctoral associates, and numerous visiting scientists. He has published over 900 peer-reviewed research papers, 75 book chapters and other publications, authored 3 books and has received over 23 patents. He served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the American Chemical Society 1982–2001. His research interests involve the application of electrochemical methods to the study of chemical problems and include investigations in scanning electrochemical microscopy, electrogenerated chemiluminescence and photoelectrochemistry.

Peter Bogdanoff received his PhD in physical chemistry at the Max-Volmer-Institute for Biophysical and Physical Chemistry of the Technical University Berlin. During his PhD work, he investigated vectorial electron transfer processes and the proton-stoichiometry during the photosynthesis at thylakoid membranes. In 1991 he joined the Department Solar Energetics at the former Hahn-Meitner-Institute in Berlin as a postdoctoral research fellow, and since 1998 he has been the head of the Electrochemistry and Photoelectrocatalysis research group, which is working on new materials and material combinations for energy conversion in (photo)electrocatalytic processes. One his main tasks has been the development and investigation of novel electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction, especially those based on transition-metal N₄ chelate centres, and their application in PEM fuel cells. Following foundation of Institute for Solar Fuels at the Helmholtz-Centre Berlin for Materials and Energy in 2010, his research focus has changed to non-noble metal oxides and sulfides as electrocatalysts for light-driven splitting.

David J. Boston is a senior PhD student at the University of Texas at Arlington and works with Fred MacDonnell on the photochemical reduction of carbon dioxide using ruthenium polypyridyl complexes. He received his B.S. in chemistry from Iowa State University in 2006, where he received the Plagen’s Research Stipend.

Ramón Collazo is Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. He has worked on the growth and characterization of wide band gap semiconductor thin films, especially nitrides and diamond, for the past 15 years. He has been particularly involved in developing a process for controlling the polarity in III-nitrides to develop lateral polarity homojunctions along with their application to the first lateral p/n junction. Additionally, he has been involved in the development of AlN bulk single crystal substrates, their surface preparation, and further epitaxial thin film deposition for optoelectronics and power device applications. Some of his current research interests are: III-N wide band gap semiconductors and control of their point defects, polar materials, optical characterization and non-linear optics. He was awarded the Facundo Bueso Medal for Physics and has authored over 100 publications in peer-reviewed journals. He has also been awarded several patents and given presentations at national and international conferences.

Nikolaus Dietz is a Professor of Physics at Georgia State University in Atlanta. His areas of expertise include: radiation interactions with matter; the growth, materials property analysis and defect characterization of photovoltaic group II-VI and I-III-VI₂ compound semiconductors, e.g. CdMnTe, CuInS₂, ZnGeP₂; the epitaxial thin film growth of group III-phosphide and group III-nitride compound semiconductors by chemical beam epitaxy, low-pressure and superatmospheric CVD and plasma-assisted MOCVD – and their physical properties characterization; the real-time optical thin-film growth diagnostic and process control; and the characterization of linear/nonlinear optical materials properties. Present research focuses on the development and exploration of new approaches for the fabrication of ternary and quaternary group III-nitrides/phosphides heterostructures of relevance in nanophotonics, optoelectronics, high-efficient photovoltaics, and photocatalytic devices. Dr. Dietz holds several patents and has published more than 140 papers in peer-reviewed journals as well a number of book chapters.

Kazunari Domen received his BSc (1976), MSc (1979), and PhD (1982) in chemistry from the University of Tokyo. He joined the Chemical Resources Laboratory, Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1982 as Assistant Professor and was subsequently promoted to Associate Professor in 1990 and Professor in 1996 before moving to the University of Tokyo as Professor in 2004. Professor Domen works on heterogeneous water-splitting photocatalysts for generation of clean and recyclable hydrogen. In 1980, he reported the discovery of a NiO-SrTiO3 photocatalyst for the overall water splitting reaction – one of the earliest examples of stoichiometric H₂ and O₂ evolution on a particulate system. In 2005, he succeeded in achieving overall water splitting under visible light (400 nm<λ<500 nm) using a GaN:ZnO solid solution photocatalyst. His research interests now include heterogeneous catalysis and materials chemistry, with particular focus on surface chemical reaction dynamics, photocatalysis, solid acid catalysis, and mesoporous materials.

Sebastian Fiechter studied materials science at the Crystallographic Institute of the Albert-Ludwig-University Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany). In 1983 he joined the group of Helmut Tributsch at the Hahn-Meitner-Institute in Berlin, where he developed new photoactive and photoelectrocatalytic materials. In the past 15 years he has been involved in the preparation and electrochemical characterization of electrocatalysts for fuel cells and photovoltaic hybrid electrolysers. Together with Peter Bogdanoff, he developed carbon-supported selenium-modified ruthenium catalysts and later porphyrin-based oxygen reduction catalysts, where catalytically-active Fe-N_x and Co-N_x centres are embedded in graphene nano-sheets. In 2011, he was appointed honorary Professor at the Technical University Berlin. Between 2008 and 2012, he was acting director of the newly-founded Institute for Solar Fuels at the Helmholtz-Centre Berlin for Materials and Energy and was appointed Deputy Director in 2012. As a principle investigator of the project “Nanostructured Materials for the Light-induced water Splitting”, his activities are now focused on the realization of water splitting membranes where non-noble metal oxides and sulfides act as electrocatalysts integrated in PV thin film structures to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.

Michael Grätzel is Professor at the Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne Switzerland, where he directs the Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces. He pioneered the use of mesoscopic materials in energy conversion systems, in particular photovoltaic cells, lithium ion batteries and photo-electrochemical devices for the splitting of water into hydrogen and oxygen by sunlight. He also discovered a new type of solar cell based on dye sensitized nanocrystalline oxide films. Author of over 900 publications, two books and inventor of more than 50 patents, his work has been cited over 88,000 times (h-index 138) making him one of the 10 most cited chemists in the world.

Thomas Hannappel was appointed in 2011 a W3 full professor (physics) in the Photovoltaics Department of the University of Technology in Ilmenau. He is also scientific director of the solar center at the CiS research institute in Erfurt, Germany. Before, he was provisional head of the Materials for Photovoltaics Institute at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin and lecturer at the Free University Berlin, where he received his doctorate in 2005. He obtained his PhD in Physics at the Technical University Berlin with studies on ultrafast dynamics of photo-induced charge carrier separation in dye solar cells, work performed at Fritz-Haber-Institute Berlin. In 2003/04 he conducted research on silicon/III-V-interfaces at NREL. His current investigations are focused on high-performance solar cells and critical interfaces and he is a key player in the fields of solar energy conversion and reactions of critical semiconductor interfaces including silicon/ and germanium/III-V-interfaces, and nano- and quantum-structures.

Anders Hellman received his PhD in theoretical physics in 2003 from University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Since then he has worked on various topics related to surface science, heterogeneous catalysis and materials for energy harvesting at research centers, such as, Haldor Topsøe A/S and the Center of Individual Nanoparticle Functionality (CINF), Denmark. He is currently an associate professor at Applied Physics, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, where he is also associated with the Competence Centre for Catalysis. His research interests range from automotive catalysis to plasmon-assisted water oxidation, where he has used several different computational methods, such as, density functional theory calculations, molecular dynamics, Monte-Carlo techniques, micro-kinetic models and finite difference time domain methods to understand the fundamental physics behind the observed phenomena. His research portfolio includes charge transfer and non-adiabaticity in surface reaction, ammonia synthesis, CO and methane oxidation, thin oxides supported on metals, and photoelectrochemical studies of water oxidation.

Kai-Ling Huang is currently a doctoral student at the University of Texas at Arlington since 2010. She works with Fred MacDonnell on the development of ruthenium polypyridyl complexes as potential photocatalysts for carbon dioxide reduction. Kai-Ling completed a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry from National Taiwan University, Taiwan and continued her education with a Master’s Degree in Catalysis, Molecular and Green Chemistry at Université de Rennes, France.

Heung Chan Lee obtained his BSc and MS degree at Korea University under the supervision of Keon Kim. He synthesized and modified polymer electrolyte membranes, and performed electrochemical evaluations for fuel cell application. He carried out his PhD studies at The University of Iowa under the supervision of Johna Leddy. Heung Chan Lee investigated magnetic field effects in electrochemical systems including heterogeneous and homogeneous electron transfer rates in magnetite composite modified semiconductor electrodes. During his PhD, he won three awards including the Jakobsen conference award in 2010. In 2011, he joined Allen J. Bard’s group at the University of Texas at Austin and worked on new metal oxide semiconductors for photoelectrochemical energy conversion systems using scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM). In 2011 he was awarded an Oronzio and Niccolò De Nora Postdoctoral Fellowship in Electrochemistry for his research proposal, “Developing new oxide semiconductors for solar energy conversion systems”.

Chanelle Jumper is a current PhD student in the Scholes group at the University of Toronto, Canada. She is studying ultrafast dynamics of energy transfer in photosynthetic proteins, as well as model molecular systems. This work is aimed at understanding the physics involved in energy transfer processes for applications related to solar cell development.

Marc T.M. Koper is Professor of Surface Chemistry and Catalysis at Leiden University, The Netherlands. He received his PhD degree (1994) from Utrecht University (The Netherlands) in the field of electrochemistry. He was an EU Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow at the University of Ulm (Germany) and a Fellow of Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) at Eindhoven University of Technology, before moving to Leiden in 2005. He has also been a visiting professor at Hokkaido University (Japan). His research interests are in fundamental studies of electrochemical and electrocatalytic processes through a combination of experimental and theoretical investigations. His group combines well-defined often single-crystalline electrodes with spectroscopic techniques to study electrocatalytic reactions of importance for energy and environmental issues, such as hydrogen evolution, oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution, carbon dioxide reduction, and nitrate reduction. His theoretical work includes theories of charge transfer reactions in condensed media and first-principles density-functional theory calculations of electrode surfaces.

Kevin C. Leonard is currently a postdoctoral research fellow in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department at the University of Texas at Austin. He has a BS in Chemical Engineering and Applied Mathematics and an MS and PhD in Materials Science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Dr. Leonard’s research interests include materials for renewable energy storage and characterization of these materials utilizing scanning electrochemical microscopy. He was awarded the 2012 Oronzio and Niccolò De Nora Foundation Fellowship in Electrochemistry.

Hans-Joachim Lewerenz is currently Department Head of the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis at the California Institute of Technology and Deputy Director of the Solar Fuel Institute at the Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin. His research interests encompass photoelectrochemistry, solar energy conversion and surface science of semiconductors. He received his doctorate from the Technical University of Berlin (TUB) in 1978 with a thesis on photoemission into electrolytes, performed at the Fritz-Haber-Institute. After a two year postdoctoral stay at Bell Labs working on photoelectrochemical solar cells, he moved to the Brown Boveri Research Center in Switzerland before returning to Berlin to where he habilitated in physics at TUB and become group leader at the Hahn-Meitner-Institute. He was appointed as professor for physics at TUB and Head of the Department Interfaces at HMI in 1994. He has been guest professor at the Brandenburgisch Technical University Cottbus and visiting/adjunct professor at North Carolina State University. Professor Lewerenz has published over 260 articles and 4 books and has authored 20 patents. He recently became editor of Springer Briefs for Physics.

Nathan S. Lewis is Professor of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology since 1991. Since 2010 he has served as Principal Investigator of the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, the DOE’s Energy Innovation Hub in Fuels from Sunlight, and since 1992 the Beckman Institute Molecular Materials Resource Center. His research interests include artificial photosynthesis and electronic noses. He continues to study ways to harness sunlight and generate chemical fuel by splitting water to generate hydrogen. He is developing the electronic nose, which consists of chemically sensitive conducting polymer film capable of detecting and quantifying a broad variety of analytes. Technical details focus on light-induced electron transfer reactions, both at surfaces and in transition metal complexes, surface chemistry and photochemistry of semiconductor/liquid interfaces, novel uses of conducting organic polymers and polymer/conductor composites, and development of sensor arrays that use pattern recognition algorithms to identify odorants, mimicking the mammalian olfaction process.

Fred MacDonnell is Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Texas at Arlington. He has worked for many years on topics related to solar energy conversion, most specifically with the development of ruthenium-based photocatalysts for multi-electron collection and catalysis. He has published 54 papers in peer-reviewed journals as well as several book chapters.

Kazuhiko Maeda received his BSc from Tokyo University of Science (2003), his MSc from the Tokyo Institute of Technology (2005), and his PhD from the University of Tokyo (2007) under the supervision of Professor Kazunari Domen. From 2008 to 2009, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Pennsylvania State University, where he worked with Professor Thomas E. Mallouk. He then joined The University of Tokyo as an Assistant Professor in 2009. Moving to Tokyo Institute of Technology in 2012, he was promoted to an Associate Professor. His research interests are photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical water splitting using semiconductor particles of (oxy)nitrides, inorganic metal oxide nanosheets, and polymeric carbon nitride, combining nanotechnology and materials chemistry. He has published more than 80 peer-reviewed original papers as well as several review papers and book chapters.

Matthias M. May is a PhD student at Humboldt-Universität in Berlin on a scholarship of the German National Academic Foundation. He studied physics in Stuttgart, Grenoble, and Berlin with focus on condensed matter and computational physics. In his diploma thesis, he investigated the electronic structure of charge-density waves in transition-metal dichalcogenides and began work on the water-semiconductor interface. His strongest research tools are angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy and in situ reflection anisotropy spectroscopy.

James McKone is in his fifth year of graduate studies at the California Institute of Technology in the research groups of Harry B. Gray and Nathan S. Lewis. A native of northern Iowa, he developed a passion for renewable energy as an undergraduate at Saint Olaf College, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2008, majoring in chemistry and music. His research at Caltech has been focused on development of earth-abundant semiconductor and catalyst materials for photoelectrochemical hydrogen evolution. James has also been actively involved in the design and rollout of several successful outreach efforts affiliated with the NSF CCI Solar program based at Caltech.

Noseung Myung obtained his BS degree at Yonsei University in Korea and his PhD degree at the University of Texas at Arlington with Professor Krishnan Rajeshwar as mentor. After a postdoctoral fellowship at Clark University, MA, USA, he has been a Professor of Applied Chemistry at Konkuk University Chungju Campus in Korea since 1996. His research interests include electrodeposition of semiconductor, photoelectrochemistry and method development for the analysis of semiconductor thin films using electrochemical quartz crystal microgravimetry and voltammetry.

Arthur J. Nozik is Professor Adjoint in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Colorado, Boulder; Senior Research Fellow Emeritus at the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL); and a Founding Fellow of the NREL/University of Colorado Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute. Nozik has been Associate Director of the Los Alamos/NREL Energy Frontier Research Center and founding Scientific Director of the Colorado Center for Revolutionary Solar Photoconversion. His research interests include size quantization effects in semiconductor structures, including multiple exciton generation and the applications of unique effects in nanostructures and nanoscience to advanced approaches for solar photon conversion. He has published over 250 papers and book chapters, written or edited 6 books, holds 11 US patents and serves on many Scientific Advisory Boards and Committees. He received the 2011 ACS Esselen Award at Harvard University, the 2009 Science Award from the UN IREO, the 2008 Eni Award in Science and Technology, and the 2002 Research Award of the Electrochemical Society. He was Senior Editor of The Journal of Physical Chemistry, and is on the editorial advisory board of several other journals. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the AAAS.

Evgeny E. Ostroumov is Postdoctoral Fellow in University of Toronto. He received his PhD in Physics from University of Düsseldorf and Max-Planck-Institute for Bioinorganic Chemistry, where he worked with Alfred Holzwarth exploring electronic properties of isolated chromophores as well as photo-protection mechanisms in high plants. During his MSc studies in Moscow State University he worked on laser diagnostics and remote sensing of phytoplankton. His current research interests include application of nonlinear ultrafast spectroscopy to study energy transfer processes in natural complex systems.

Hyun S. Park received his BS degree (2006) and MS degree (2008) in Chemical Engineering from Seoul National University, Korea. He was a graduate student in Professor Allen J. Bard’s group from 2010–2012, and just received his PhD degree from the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department at The University of Texas at Austin. His studies encompassed electrochemistry and photochemistry of metal oxide semiconductors. His current research interests include photoelectrochemistry for photon-energy conversion in water splitting system.

Bruce Parkinson received his BS in chemistry at Iowa State University in 1972 and his PhD from Caltech in 1977 under the guidance of Professor Fred Anson. After a year of post-doctoral studies at Bell Laboratories with Adam Heller he was a staff scientist at the Ames Laboratory. He then became a senior scientist at the Solar Energy Research Institute (now known as the National Renewable Energy Laboratory) in Golden, Colorado. He then joined the Central Research and Development Department of the DuPont Company in 1985. In 1991 he became Professor of Chemistry at Colorado State University until his departure to join the Department of Chemistry and the School of Energy Resources at the University of Wyoming in 2008. His current research covers a wide range of areas including materials chemistry, photochemistry on Mars and photoelectrochemical energy conversion. He has more than 200 publications in peer-reviewed journals and holds 5 US patents. His other interests include photography and swimming.

Laurie Peter is Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Bath. He has worked for many years on topics related to solar energy conversion, including dye-sensitized solar cells, earth-abundant materials for thin film PV, semiconductor photoelectrochemistry and photobiological systems for energy conversion. He has published around 290 papers in peer-reviewed journals as well as several book chapters and has been awarded a number of international prizes for his work. Much of his recent research has involved collaboration with other groups in the UK within the framework of two EPSRC Supergen Consortia: PV materials for the 21^st Century and Excitonic Solar Cells. He currently has a number of international collaborations and splits his time between the University of Bath and the Ludwig Maximillian University in Munich, where he is working on a range of topics including light-driven water splitting and in-situ microwave measurements on solar cells.

Evgeny Ostroumov is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto. He received his PhD in Physics from University of Düsseldorf and the Max-Planck-Institute for Bioinorganic Chemistry, where he worked with Professor Alfred Holzwarth exploring the electronic properties of isolated chromophores as well as photo-protection mechanisms in high plants. During his MSc studies in Moscow State University, he worked on laser diagnostics and remote sensing of phytoplankton. His current research interests include the application of nonlinear ultrafast spectroscopy to study energy transfer processes in natural complex systems.

Krishnan Rajeshwar is a Distinguished University Professor and Associate Vice President for Research at the University of Texas at Arlington. He is the Editor of Electrochemical Society Interface since 1999. His research interests include photoelectrochemistry; solar energy conversion; renewable energy; materials chemistry; semiconductor electrochemistry; and environmental chemistry. He has edited books, special issues of journals, and conference proceedings and is the author of over 350 refereed publications.

Greg Scholes is the D.J. LeRoy Distinguished Professor at the University of Toronto in the Department of Chemistry. His research group examines photophysics in systems ranging from semiconductor nanocrystals to conjugated polymers to photosynthetic light-harvesting proteins. He is especially interested in uncovering microscopic details of light-induced energy capture and conversion processes in photosynthesis and organic photovoltaics using a combination of femtosecond laser experiments and theory. He serves as an Editorial Advisor for New Journal of Physics and Senior Editor for the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. He serves on several editorial advisory boards.

Klaas Jan Schouten was born in Gouda in 1986 and grew up in Moordrecht, the Netherlands. He obtained his MSc degree (cum laude) from Leiden University in 2009, doing research on the dissociation of hydrogen on stepped platinum surfaces under UHV conditions with Ludo Juurlink. He also investigated the adsorption of H⁺ and OH⁻ on stepped platinum surfaces under electrochemical conditions. After that he continued with Marc Koper for a PhD project, focused on the mechanistic aspects of the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide on copper electrodes.

Kevin Sivula received a PhD degree from the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley in 2007 and is currently an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. His research is directed towards engineering new, inexpensive and solution-processable semiconductor materials and implementing them in high performance devices – especially for solar energy conversion. He has published over 40 peer-reviewed papers on diverse subjects such as controlling interfacial electronics, nanostructured morphology, and self-assembly to gain insight into charge carrier transport, energy transfer, and optoelectronic performance of transistors, sensors, photovoltaic and photoelectrochemical devices.

Norma Tacconi is a Research Associate Professor at the University of Texas at Arlington. After stints at The Institute of Physical Chemistry (INIFTA, Argentina), University of Poitiers, CNRS Bellevue Laboratory, and the University of Geneva, she joined the group of Professor Rajeshwar at UT Arlington in the early 90s. She has co-authored over 160 papers in peer-reviewed journals as well as several book chapters. Her research interests include semiconductor nanostructures and nanocomposites for photovoltaic energy conversion, molecular catalysts for photo- and electroreduction of CO₂, semiconductor nanoparticles for environmental remediation, and photocatalytically-generated metal nanoclusters on carbon black for fuel cell applications.

John A. Turner is a Research Fellow at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and has been with the Laboratory since 1979 when was then the Solar Energy Research Institute. He received his BS degree in Chemistry from Idaho State University, his PhD in Analytical Chemistry from Colorado State University, and completed a postdoctoral appointment at the California Institute of Technology before joining the Laboratory. His work is primarily concerned with enabling technologies for the implementation of hydrogen-based systems into the energy infrastructure. His main research interests are photoelectrochemistry for the production of hydrogen from sunlight and water and the study of fundamental processes of charge transfer at semiconductor electrodes. He is a Fellow of the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute, a joint institute between NREL and the University of Colorado, Boulder and co-Editor of the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, an AIP journal.

Shijun Wang is currently a postdoctoral fellow working in Allen J. Bard’s group at the University of Texas at Austin. He earned his PhD from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2010. He received his BS degree from the Anhui University of Science and Technology (China) in 1995 and MS degree from the Anhui University (China) in 2005. His research interests include semiconductor photoelectrochemistry, design and understanding novel solid state inorganic photocatalysis and electrocatalysis material for solar energy conversion.