2025 IEEE William Cherry Award will be presented at the 53rd IEEE PVSC to Dr. David B. Mitzi. This presentation will take place on Monday, June 9 at 10:00 am.
David Mitzi is the Simon Family Distinguished Professor at Duke University, with appointments to the Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science (MEMS) and Chemistry Departments. He received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Engineering Physics from Princeton University (1985) and his Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Stanford University (1990), where his thesis work focused on oxide-based perovskites and high-temperature superconductivity.
Before joining the faculty at Duke (2014), Dr. Mitzi spent 23 years at IBM’s Watson Research Center, researching and developing new electronic materials, including organic-inorganic hybrids and solution-processable inorganic semiconductors for photovoltaics, light-emission, transistor, and memory applications. During this time, he conducted pioneering work on structure-property relationships, film deposition and crystal growth techniques, and early electronic device (e.g., transistor, LED) demonstrations of halide-based perovskites, a family of materials that dominates contemporary emerging thin-film PV research and commercialization efforts. He also served as manager for the Photovoltaic Science and Technology Department, where he initiated and managed a multi-company program to develop a low-cost, high-throughput solution-based approach to deposit chalcogenide-based absorbers for high-efficiency photovoltaics. Mitzi’s team held the power conversion efficiency record for Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 for >10 years (until 2021); his current group at Duke continues to develop new semiconductors within the multinary chalcogenide family. Dr. Mitzi is a Fellow of the Materials Research Society (MRS), a Clarivate Analytics Highly-Cited Researcher, and received the 2020 American Chemical Society (ACS) Award in the Chemistry of Materials for pioneering work on halide perovskites.
About the Award
This award is named in honor of William R. Cherry, a founder of the photovoltaic community. In the 1950's, he was instrumental in establishing solar cells as the ideal power source for space satellites and for recognizing, advocating, and nurturing the use of photovoltaic systems for terrestrial applications. The William R. Cherry award was instituted in 1980, shortly after his death. The purpose of the award is to recognize an individual engineer or scientist who devoted a part of their professional life to the advancement of the science and technology of photovoltaic energy conversion. The nominee must have made significant contributions to the science and/or technology of PV energy conversion, with dissemination by substantial publications and presentations. Professional society activities, promotional and/or organizational efforts and achievements are not considerations in the election for the award.
Award Package
The award consists of a plaque, monetary award, recognition at the IEEE PVSC Opening Ceremony and a dedicated Cherry Award Talk during the Opening Ceremony.
Rules & Eligibility
- Nominee must be a scientist or engineer who has made significant contributions to the science and/or technology of PV energy conversion, with dissemination by substantial publications and presentations.
- Nominee must have had an extended period of activity in PV, contributions to the PVSC, and the expectation of continued activity. Single outstanding contributions are not sufficient.
- Professional and/or organizational efforts and achievements are not considerations for this award.
- Nominees are not required to be members of IEEE or EDS.
- Nominees from any country and institution are eligible.
- Previous recipients of the Cherry Award are not eligible.
- Self-nominations will not be accepted.
- Nominations will be carried over for one year.
- Unsuccessful nominations older than one year will need to be re-submitted.
WILLIAM R. CHERRY COMMITTEE
Thorsten Trupke Jenny Nelson Stephen R. Forrest Harry Atwater Tim Anderson Charles Backus Sheila G. Bailey Allen M. Barnett Paul Basore John Benner Henry W. Brandhorst, Jr. Timothy Coutts Keith Emery Dennis J. Flood
Americo F. Forestieri Vasilis Fthenakis |
Alex Freundlich Martin A. Green Christiana Honsberg Seth Hubbard Lawrence L. Kazmerski Richard R. King Sarah Kurtz Antonio Luque Sylvain Marsillac John D. Meakin Ryne Raffaelle Eugene Ralph Angele Reinders Steve Ringel |
Angus Rockett Ajeet Rohatgi Richard Schwartz Ronald A. Sinton James Sites BJ Stanbery Dick Swanson Pierre Verlinden Robert J. Walters David Wilt Eli Yablonovich Masafumi Yamaguchi |
Previous Recipients
Dr. Paul
Rappaport 1980 Dr. Martin A. Green 1990 Mr. Peter A. Iles 1991 |
Dr. Lawrence L. Kazmerski 1993 Dr. Christopher R. Wronski 2000 Dr. Richard M. Swanson 2002 Dr. Ajeet Rohatgi 2003 Dr. Timothy J. Coutts 2005 |
Dr. Antonio Luque 2006 Dr. Masafumi Yamaguchi 2008 Dr. Stuart Wenham 2009 Dr. Richard R. King 2010 Dr. Jerry M. Olson 2011 Dr. Sarah Kurtz 2012 Dr. Keith Emery 2013 Dr. Ronald A. Sinton 2014 Dr. Christiana Honsberg 2015 |
Dr. Pierre Verlinden 2016 Prof. Eli Yablonovitch 2017 Prof. Vasilis Fthenakis 2018 Dr. Harry Atwater 2019 Prof. James Sites 2020 Prof. Thorsten Trupke 2021 Prof. Stephen R. Forrest 2022 Prof. Jenny Nelson 2023 |