Robert Collins
(University of Toledo, USA)

"Polarization Probes Polycrystalline PV Performance Precisely"

Session: "Area 2 Plenary"
Monday June 15
9:00-9:30 AM (Empire Ballroom)

Ardeshir Contractor
(Kiran Energy, India)

"India with Recent Large Scale PV Installations - Learnings and Experiences"

Session: "Panel on International Cooperation"
Thursday June 18,
3:30- 5:00 PM (Empire Ballroom)

Biography: Ardeshir Contractor is the Managing Director and CEO of Kiran Energy, which he confounded in 2009. Kiran Energy is a leading solar energy generator in India supplying to public and private companies.  Ardeshir was previously the Managing Director of KPMG India and has served on the Board of many companies as an independent director. He holds GTech from IITBombay and an MS from Ohio State University.   

Andres Cuevas
(Australian National University, Australia)

"Skin care for healthy solar cells"

Session: "Area 4 Plenary"
Tuesday June 16
9:00-9:30 AM (Empire Ballroom)

 Edward Hamers
(HyET Solar, the Netherlands)

"The Future of Thin Film Silicon Solar Modules"

Session: "Area 5 Plenary"
Tuesday June 16
8:30-9:00 AM (Empire Ballroom)

Biography: Dr. Edward Hamers has a PhD in Physics (Utrecht University 1998). In 2001 he joined the flexible thin film silicon module project "Helianthos" at Akzo Nobel. In 2006 the Helianthos activities were taken over by the Dutch electricity manufacturer Nuon. Since 2008 he was responsible for the Research and Development and Quality Control, and part of the management team. After the activities were abandoned by Nuon, he and Jos Lenssen found a new investor for the Helianthos technology and facilities and founded the company HyET Solar. Within HyET Solar his responsibilities are in Research and Development, Quality Analysis, Product development and business development.

Rebecca Jones-Albertus
(U.S. Department of Energy, USA)

"A Changing Vision for U.S. PV Research."

Session: "Special Plenary"
Thursday June 18
9:30-10:00 AM (Empire Ballroom)

Biography: Dr. Becca Jones-Albertus is the Program Manager for Photovoltaics R&D at the U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Energy Technologies Office. She manages a $200 million portfolio of funding to advance U.S. photovoltaic technology towards and beyond the SunShot Initiative target of $0.06/kWh by 2020.

 Sarah Kurtz
(National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA)

"Quantifying Reliability - The Next Step for a Rapidly Maturing PV Industry"

Session: "Area 11 Plenary"
Thursday June 18
9:00-9:30 AM (Empire Ballroom)

 Laurent Lombez
(CNRS IRDEP, France)

"Across all photovoltaic generations : universal characterization by hyperspectral luminescence imaging"

Session: "Area 8 Plenary"
Wednesday, June 17
9:30-10:00 AM (Empire Ballroom)

 Robert Margolis
(D.C Office of National Renewable Energy Lab., USA)

"US PV market development trends:  Where we are today and where we are going"

Session: "Area 10 Plenary"
Tuesday, June 16
9:30-10:00 AM (Empire Ballroom)

Albert Polman
(FOM Institute AMOLF,  The Netherlands)

"High-efficiency solar cells by nanophotonic design"

Session: "Area 1 Plenary"
Wednesday June 17
8:30-9:00 AM (Empire Ballroom)

Biography: Albert Polman is an early pioneer in the field of light management for photovoltaics.  He is member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), recipient of an ERC Advanced Investigator Grant (2010), the ENI Renewable Energy Prize (2012), the Physica Prize of the Dutch Physical Society (2014) and the Julius Springer Award for Applied Physics (2014).

Brian R. Spence
(Deployable Space Systems, USA)

"Flexible Blanket Solar Arrays:  Next-Generation Game-Changing Technology."

Session: "Area 7 Plenary"
Wednesday June 17
9:00-9:30 AM (Empire Ballroom)

Biography: Brian R. Spence is the founder and President of Deployable Space Systems, Inc. (DSS).  Mr. Spence has over 25 years of experience in deployable solar arrays, deployable structural systems, and innovative mechanism technologies. 

Henry Snaith
(University of Oxford, United Kingdom)

From Nanostructured to Thin-film Perovskite Solar Cells"

Session: "Area 6 Plenary"
Thursday June 18
8:30-9:00 AM (Empire Ballroom)

Biography: Henry is a professor in the physics department of Oxford University. He received his Ph.D. in 2004 from the University of Cambridge and undertook his postdoc at the ƒcole Polytechnique FŽdŽrale de Lausanne, Switzerland. His research has been focused on new materials and device architectures for future generation low-cost photovoltaic. Henry's achievements include the first demonstration of "gyroid" structured titania for dye solar cells, the first demonstration of mesoporous single crystals of anataze TiO2 and the recent discovery of high efficiency solid-state organometal trihalide perovskite-based thin film and mesosuperstructured solar cells. He was awarded the Patterson Medal of the Institute of Physics in 2012, and named as one of "Natures Ten" people who mattered in 2013.

Pierre Verlinden
(Trina Solar, China)

"Challenges and Opportunities of High-Performance Solar Cells and PV Modules in Large Volume Production"

Session: "Area 9 Plenary"
Monday June 15 
9:30-10:00 AM (Empire Ballroom)

Biography: Dr. Pierre J. Verlinden is Vice-President and Chief Scientist at Trina Solar since 2012. He is also Vice-Chair of the State Key Laboratory of PV Science and Technology, and Vice Director of the Jiangsu Province Enterprise Engineering Technology Center. Dr. Verlinden has been working in photovoltaics for more than 35 years and has published over 100 technical papers and contributed to a number of books. Earlier in his career, Dr. Verlinden was Director of R&D at SunPower, Principal Scientist at Solar Systems and Managing Director of Amrock. He is recognized for his early work on high-efficiency IBC silicon solar cells.

Greg Wilson
(National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA)

"The importance of international collaboration in rapidly moving PV forward as a climate change mitigation tool"

Session: "Panel on International Cooperation"
Thursday June 18,
3:30- 5:00 PM (Empire Ballroom)

Biography: Gregory M. Wilson is the Director of the National Center for Photovoltaics (NCPV) at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Greg is responsible for NREL's PV and PV reliability R&D portfolio and for continued development of the NCPV's many interfaces and partnerships with the global PV community. Prior to joining NREL in 2011, he spent nearly 17 years at SunEdison (previously MEMC) where he directed the Epitaxial Silicon and New Materials R&D groups between 1997 and 2009. In 2009 he joined the merger and acquisition team that acquired SunEdison and Solaicx. Dr. Wilson has over 25 years of research and development experience and holds a D.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from Washington University.

Hiroyuki Yamada
(New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization -NEDO, Japan)

"Overview of Photovoltaic R&D in Japan"

Session: "Panel on International Cooperation"
Thursday June 18,
3:30- 5:00 PM (Empire Ballroom)

Biography: Dr. Hiroyuki Yamada is the Director of the Solar Energy Systems Group at the Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). Dr. Yamada also served as the vice-chairman of International Energy Agency (IAE)'s  Photovoltaic Power Systems Program.

 Ronn Andriessen
(Solliance/Holst Centre, The Netherlands)

"OPV stability: Designed to last"

Session: "Device Stability, Scale-up & Applications (Area 6)"
Tuesday June 16,
4:00- 4:30 PM (Strand 12)

Biography: Dr. Ronn Andriessen is currently Program Manager at Solliance, a joint initiative of IMEC, ECN, TNO, Holst Centre, the Eindhoven Technical University and Forschungs Zentrum JŸlich. Ronn received his PhD in (Photo-) Chemistry in 1991 at the University of Leuven in Belgium. He has been Project Manager of several New Materials Development and Applications projects and Digital Printing Plates projects. Since 2008 Ronn was Program Manager at Holst Centre/TNO of the Technology Programs Printed Conductive Structures and Large Area Printing. Ronn holds ~ 80 patent applications and more than 50 scientific publications.

Paul Basore
(National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA)

"Economics of Future Growth in Photovoltaics Manufacturing"

Session: "Silicon Material: Technology (Area 4)"
Friday June 19,
10:30- 11:00 AM (Empire C)

Biography: Dr. Paul Basore is the Director of NREL's Materials Applications and Performance Center. Dr. Basore has contributed to the establishment of photovoltaic R&D facilities on three continents, including work at Sandia National Laboratories on multi-crystalline silicon; a pilot line for Pacific Solar in Sydney, Australia; the CSG Solar factory in Germany; a photovoltaic (PV) solar laboratory for the Renewable Energy Corporation of Norway and a PV R&D lab in Silicon Valley for Hanwha. Dr. Basore has contributed to world-record solar cell efficiencies and is the developer of widely used software tools for solar cell simulation and solar cost estimations.

Pat Buehler
(First Solar Inc., USA)

"First Solar Quality & Reliability Strategy"

Session: "Module Materials, Manufacturing and Production (Area 9)"
Monday June 15,
2:00- 2:15 PM (Empire C) Session:

Biography: Pat Buehler is the Director of Reliability Operations at First Solar.

 Kethinni Chittibabu
(Molecular Photovoltaics, USA/G24 Power Ltd, UK)

"R2R Production and Low Light Applications of Dye Sensitized Solar Cells"

Session: "Device Stability, Scale-up and applications (Area 6)"
Tuesday June 16,
3:30- 4:00 PM (Strand 12)

Biography: Dr. Chittibabu is founder of Molecular Photovoltaics LLC and Director of Research/Advisory Consultant at G24 Power Ltd, Newport, Wales, UK.  He has more than 20 years of experience in research, innovation, development and technology transfer. He is a former co-founder of Konarka Technologies and is vastly experienced in material and process research within dye-sensitized solar cells, organic photovoltaics, solid state dye-sensitized and hybrid solar cells. He has 14 issued patents, more than 40 patent applications in third generation solar cell technologies and over 40 scientific publications in peer reviewed journals and international conference proceedings. Dr. Chittibabu received his M.S. in Chemistry from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, India; M.S. in Polymer Science and Technology from IIT, Delhi; and PhD in Polymer Science/Plastics Engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, USA.

 Stephen Forrest 
(University of Michigan, USA)

"From Nanostructure to High Efficiency in Organic Photovoltaics"

Session: "Organic Materials and Devices (Area 6)"
Friday June 19,
8:30- 9:00 AM (Strand 12)

Biography: Stephen R. Forrest is William Gould Dow Collegiate Professor in Electrical Engineering, Physics and Materials Science & Engineering at University of Michigan. He is a Fellow of the APS, IEEE and OSA and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards including the Thomas Alva Edison Award and the MRS Medal for innovations in organic LEDs, the IEEE/LEOS William Streifer Scientific Achievement Award for advances made on photodetectors for optical communications systems, the Jan Rajchman Prize from the Society for Information Display for invention of phosphorescent OLEDs, and is the recipient of the 2007 IEEE Daniel Nobel Award for innovations in OLEDs. He was inducted into the National Academy of Inventors in 2014. Prof. Forrest has authored ~565 papers in refereed journals, holds 267 patents, and has a H-index of 114. He is co-founder of several companies and is on the Board of Directors of PD-LD, Inc. and Applied Materials. He also serves on the Board of Governors of Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.

Wyatt Metzger
(National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA)

"Resetting the Defect Chemistry in CdTe"

Session: "Progress in CdTe Technology (Area 2)"
Monday June 15,
1:30- 2:00 PM (Empire A)

Biography: Dr. Wyatt Metzger is the CdTe Technology leader at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Prior to joining NREL Dr. Metzger worked as a Principal Scientist and Manager at GE. Dr. Metzger has a PhD in Physics from the University of Colorado.

Susan Schorr
(Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, Germany)

"Point defect characteristics in quaternary chalcogenide compound semiconductors"

Session:  "Advances in Chalcogenides Solar Cells (Area 2)"
Tuesday June 16
1:30-2:00 PM (Empire A)

Biography: Dr. Susan Schorr received her PhD in physics from the Technical University Berlin before joining the Los Alamos National Laboratory (USA) as a postdoc. In 2001, she started her state doctorate at the University of Leipzig, focusing on multinary compound semiconductors, where she developed a neutron-diffraction based method for investigation of intrinsic point defects. She started as group leader in the solar energy research division of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin in 2006 and became a professor at the Freie Universitaet Berlin in 2008. Since 2011 she is the head of the newly established department of crystallography at HZB, which focuses on materials research for solar energy conversion.

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Hiroki Sugimoto
(Solar Frontier, Japan)

"Impact of Buffer Layer on Kesterite Solar Cells"

Session:  "Advances in Buffer Layers, Interface and Back Contact Engineering (Area 2)"
Monday June 15
3:30-4:00 PM (Empire A)

Biography: Dr. Hiroki Sugimoto obtained his Doctoral of Engineering degree at The University of Tokyo. Starting in 2003, he worked on super high efficiency multi-junction compound solar cells at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. In 2005, he switched to high efficiency multi-crystalline Si solar cells, still at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. He then started to work on high efficiency CIS thin-film solar cells at Showa Shell Sekiyu in 2008. Finally in 2010, he joined Solar Frontier to work on their high efficiency CIS and CZTS thin-film solar cells. He is currently the Manager of the Technology Development Division at Solar Frontier.

 Susanna Thon
(Johns Hopkins University, USA)

"Overcoming the Absorption-Extraction Compromise in Colloidal Quantum Dot Photovoltaics"

Session: "Hybrid Materials and Devices (Joint Area 6&1)"
Monday June 15,
1:30- 2:00 PM (Strand 12)

Biography: Susanna M. Thon is currently an assistant professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Johns Hopkins University.  She received her Bachelor's degree from MIT in 2005, and completed her PhD in physics at the University of California Santa Barbara in 2010 in the area of quantum optics.   From 2011-2013 she was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto working on colloidal quantum dot solar cells. Her research interests include photonic, materials, and device engineering for nanostructured photovoltaics.

 Yang Yang
(University of California Los Angeles, USA)

"Highly efficient Perovskite Solar Cells"

Session: "Perovskite Materials and Devices I (Area 6)"
Thursday June 18,
1:30- 2:00 PM (Strand 12)

Biography: Yang Yang is a Carol and Lawrence E. Tannas Jr. Endowed Chair Professor in Engineering at UCLA. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, the SPIE, and the Electromagnetic Academy. He is a Thomson Reuter Highly Cited Researcher (2014, Materials Science & Chemistry), has published more than 270 refereed papers with over 32,000 citations (H-index 87) and holds 20 issued US patents. His contributions to PV include the invention of inverted organic solar cell, inverted OPV tandem; and organic transparent cells. He is also a leading expert in the emerging field of perovskite solar cells.