Join us for “Highly Efficient Thin Film Photovoltaics for Clean Energy Generation” a keynote presentation by Dr. Feng Yan, College of Engineering – Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, MizzouForward faculty candidate.  Dr. Yan will present on his research for approximately 40-minutes with a 20-minute question and answer session to follow.

Dr. Feng Yan is a tenured associate professor in the Materials Science Program at the School for Engineering of Transport, Matter, and Energy at Arizona State University (ASU). He was an assistant professor and associate professor with tenure in the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at the University of Alabama (UA). Before joining UA, he worked as a senior development engineer at the advanced research department of First Solar, Inc., Perrysburg, (Ohio, US), focusing on high-efficiency CdTe thin film solar cells research. Dr. Yan earned his Ph.D. degree in Materials Science from the National University of Singapore in 2012. After that, he received his postdoctoral training at Drexel University, Northwestern University, and Harvard University from 2011 to 2013. Dr. Yan’s research interest is to explore the structure-properties-processing relationships in advanced electronic and photonic materials and devices for energy harvesting and conversion. His research has been sponsored by NSF, DOE, NASA, and USDA, NREL and ORAU as lead principal investigator, including the 2020 NSF CAREER Awardee and 2018 ORAU Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Awardee. He has published more than 80 peer-reviewed papers, including Nature Energy, Nature Communications, ACS Nano, etc. Dr. Yan is a member of the Materials Research Society (MRS), American Chemistry Society (ACS), IEEE PVSC, and TMS.

To further address climate change, there is an emerging need to develop clean power supplies. Solar Energy represents the most abundant renewable energy on the earth. Photovoltaic (PV) devices, commonly known as solar cells, can directly convert solar energy into electrical energy. Thin film solar cell technology is a low-cost and high-efficiency approach to realize sustainable solar electricity generation. To date, most of the single-junction solar cell technologies are far from the theoretical power conversion efficiency defined by the Shockley Queisser Efficiency Limit (SQ limit). Such efficiency losses originate from the material's electronic and photonic defects, interfaces and grain boundaries carrier recommendation, and device architecture imperfection. Thus, it is in high demand to minimize this efficiency loss and explore cost-effective and earth-abundant materials through systematic materials design and device engineering for solar cells. This seminar presents the strategies to improve the efficiency, stability, and cost-effectiveness of chalcogenides (e.g., CdTe and Sb₂Se₃) and perovskite (e.g., FAMAPbI₃) thin film solar cell technologies. The technical challenges and potential pathways for higher power conversion efficiency and large-scale manufacturing will be discussed to promote clean energy generation.

You can access Dr. Yan’s CV via OneDrive here:

 Feng Yan's CV.pdf (University log in required to access)

After the keynote, please provide candidate feedback with our brief survey.