Dr. Cyrus Wadia

The PhysOrg article Cheaper materials could be key to low-cost solar cells said

Unconventional solar cell materials that are as abundant but much less costly than silicon and other semiconductors in use today could substantially reduce the cost of solar photovoltaics, according to a new study from the Energy and Resources Group and the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL).
 
Kammen and colleagues Cyrus Wadia of LBNL and A. Paul Alivisatos of UC Berkeley’s Department of Chemistry embarked on an intensive research project to explore the question of whether high-impact materials have been overlooked or underdeveloped during the last several decades of solar cell research.
 
“The reason we started looking at new materials is because people often assume solar will be the dominant energy source of the future,” said Wadia, a post-doctoral researcher who spearheaded the research. “Because the sun is the Earth’s most reliable and plentiful resource, solar definitely has that potential, but current solar technology may not get us there in a timeframe that is meaningful, if at all. It’s important to be optimistic, but when considering the practicalities of a solar-dominated energy system, we must turn our attention back to basic science research if we are to solve the problem.”

Cyrus Wadia, Ph.D. is Senior Research Specialist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory where he is developing new synthetic pathways of earth abundant, low cost nano-material alternatives to be used in energy applications, such as photovoltaics.
 
Cyrus was awarded the MIT Technology Review 2009 TR35 Top Young Innovator Award.
 
He coauthored Transition metal/fluorite-type oxides as active catalysts for reduction of sulfur dioxide to elemental sulfur by carbon monoxide, Synthesis and photovoltaic application of copper (I) sulfide nanocrystals, Government Actions and Innovation in Clean Energy Technologies: The Cases of Photovoltaic Cells, Solar Thermal Electric Power, and Solar Water Heating, and Materials Availability Expands the Opportunity for Large-Scale Photovoltaics Deployment.
 


Cyrus earned his B.S. in Chemical Engineering at MIT in 1996, his M.S. in Chemical Engineer Practice at MIT in 1997, his M.S. in Energy and Resources at the University of California, Berkeley in 2006, and his Ph.D. in Energy and Resources at the University of California, Berkeley in 2008 with the dissertation “Establishing Iron Pyrite (FeS₂) and Chalcocite (Cu₂S) as a Novel Material Pair for Low Cost Photovoltaic Devices”.
 
Read Sun struck. Check out his personal website.