Volodimyr Duzhko promoted to (extension) Assistant Professor of Polymer Science & Engineering. PHaSE is pleased to announce that Facility Director Dr. Volodimyr Duzhko has been promoted to extension Assistant Professor of Polymer Science & Engineering. Volodimyr is a semiconductor physicist with considerable experience in polymer materials. Since joining PHaSE, he has trained over 70 people to use 10 instruments in the Photovoltaic & Optical Spectroscopy Facility (whose present design and layout was planned in major part by him a the EFRC-supported renovation), including effective use of the Facility's major instrument -- a ultraviolet photoelectron spectrometer (UPS) -- for organic polymer semiconductor electronic structure measurements. He has advised the Center concerning the design, setup, and user training for the Facility's Time-of-Flight workstation for charge transport measurements. He has also forged collaborative ties leading to publications from four different PHaSE research groups with his co-authorship, and has a publication from his own work while carrying out his other duties.
His Facility training and oversight responsibilities will now be shifted more to a corps of experiencedPHaSE graduate student and postdoctoral users, so that he can pursue more research activities and collaborations within PHaSE. We are grateful for the support of this position upgrade by UMass Amherst Vice-Chancellor for Research & Engagement Michael Malone, the Dean of the College of Natural Sciences Steve Goodwin, and the Department of Polymer Science.
Emily Pentzer serving on the DOE Energy Frontier Research Center Newsletter Editorial Board. Dr. Emily Pentzer, a PHaSE postdoctoral associate working in the Emrick group, has been selected to serve on the editorial board of the DOE Energy Frontier Research Center Newsletter. The Board is comprised of postdoctorals and graduate students from ten of the current EFRCs, and members are selected for their technical skills, communication skills and leadership abilities.
The purpose of the newsletter, “Frontiers in Energy Research,” is to showcase the outstanding research and scientists within the Energy Frontier Research Centers for the broad scientific community as well as staff at the Department of Energy and the U. S. Congress. Though scientifically literate, members of this audience do not have deep backgrounds in every scientific discipline, so articles for “Frontiers in Energy Research” are designed to be short, informative, and jargon-free. For each issue, board members determine a theme, review EFRC reports and publications, and prepare articles for publication.
See an example of Emily's work in the Newsletter article "Materials by Design to Overcome the Second Grand Challenge", written with Andriy Zakutayev.
PHaSE is pleased to announce that distinguished scientists Gui Bazan, Dean DeLongchamp, and Sam Jenekhe have joined the Center's External Advisory Committee (EAC). They join our EAC continuing members Russ Gaudiana, David Ginley (NREL), Julia Hsu (UTexas Dallas), and Yang Yang (UCLA).
Gui Bazan is Professor of Chemistry and of Materials (Engineering) at University of California at Santa Barbara. He is Director of the Center for Polymers and Organic Solids, and also Solutions Group Head for the Production and Storage research group at the Institute for Energy Efficiency at UCSB. He and his group develop new and improved methods for making organic molecules and systems of interest at electronic materials, and probe their structure-property relationships. Like many PHaSE members, he has particular interest in controlling and manipulating the organization of organic chromophores and electro-active systems to improve their behavior in electronic devices. He has received numerous scientific honors and awards, including recent NSF Special Creativity and Humboldt Foundation awards. More details about his work can be found at his UCSB research website (from which this photograph has been borrowed).
Dean M. DeLongchamp is a project leader for organic electronics and photovoltaics in the Polymers Division of the Electron Materials Group at NIST. He and his project colleagues apply an array of cutting edge spectroscopic and electrochemical measurements methods to understand and improve performance of organic materials for electronic devices, such as solar cells, energy storage, and displays. Like a number of PHaSE members, he has considerable interest in self assembling materials. He has received a number of scientific honors, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2009. More details about his work can be found at his NIST website (from which this photograph has been borrowed).
Sam Jenekhe is Boeing-Martin Professor of Chemical Engineering and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Washington. He and his group study structure-controlled synthesis and structure-property relationships of electroactive and photoactive organic polymers. He has strong interest in the assembly and aggregation of conjugated polymers, to influence their ground and excited state properties. The theme of aggregation is also important in his group's work on bio-nanomaterials. He has received an array of scientific honors and is a fellow of both the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. More details about his work can be found at his websites (from which this photograph has been borrowed.
Congratulations to PHaSE member UMass Amherst Polymer Science & Engineering Professor Alex Briseño for receiving a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and
Engineers that will include a visit to the White House!! His work was cited for “outstanding research accomplishments in areas of organic semiconductor nanoelectronics and molecular crystals and breakthroughs in the fundamental understanding of organic interfacial crystallization.” See the story in The Loop.
Well done, Alex!!
PHaSE news archives of previous stories
Joint work by Tom Russell, Alex Briseno, and coworkers describes fabrication and a significant degree of device optimization of a low band polymer pDPP/PCBM solar cell, in an article published in Advanced Materials. Photoconversion efficiency up to 5.6% with a fill factor of 60% were obtained. Morphology control based on solvent mixture tuning was critically important for best electrical output. ***
