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Energy

Interdisciplinary Research Centre
 

Dr Sam Stranks discusses the potential of novel materials for affordable, next-generation, solar power and lighting. Video: 1hr 2m, 

The family of halide perovskites are generating enormous excitement as next-generation solar cells and lighting technologies that can be produced at extremely low cost on flexible spools — and allow us to rethink what we can do with solar power and display technologies. Dr Sam Stranks, from the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology and Cavendish Laboratory, discusses their future as a groundbreaking technology, and the challenges for commercialisation.

Dr Sam Stranks is a University Lecturer in Energy in the Department of Chemical Engineering & Biotechnology and Cavendish Laboratory, leading a research group focusing on emerging semiconductors for low-cost electronics applications. He obtained his DPhil (PhD) from the University of Oxford after which he was a Junior Research Fellowship at Worcester College Oxford and then a Marie Curie Fellow at MIT. Sam received the 2018 Henry Moseley Award and Medal from the Institute of Physics, and the 2019 Marlow Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry. In 2016, he was named a TED Fellow, and in 2017 he was listed by the MIT Technology Review as one of the 35 under 35 innovators in Europe. Sam is a co-founder of Swift Solar, a startup developing lightweight perovskite PV panels.