Recruiting a new Chair in Solar Energy

Tuesday 27 March 2012

This initiative is part of a strategy to build upon and draw together existing energy-related research activities, including energy policy research, a key institutional strength. It is feasible that an associated post at a junior level may accompany this Chair appointment in order to accelerate the impact of the research.

It is well recognised that the next twenty years will see a dramatic rise in the world demand for energy. Meanwhile the availability of cheap fossil fuels will be diminishing, and the environmental cost of continuing to use fossil fuels will be increasingly prohibitive. Thus the drive for sustainable green energy is both economical and societal. In the realm of technologies for energy conversion, a disruptive innovation is anticipated from the development of new photovoltaic devices with the potential for application on a much larger scale than existing devices. Nanotechnology has the potential to make a huge impact in this regard, since all the elementary steps of energy conversion (such as charge transfer, molecular rearrangement, chemical reactions etc.) take place on the nanoscale. The ATI has specialist nanotechnologists, as well as broad expertise in the complementary fields of excitonic theory and simulation, nano-electronic devices and fabrication, photonic materials and light-matter interactions, and expertise in nano-materials for energy conversion. The successful applicant will champion the use of nano-engineered materials for photovoltaic devices, taking advantage of the clean-room capability of the ATI and aiming for devices which are compatible with ultra-low cost, large area processing technologies, one route to widespread exploitation. An alternative route might involve the development of very high efficiency photovoltaics produced by multi-junction compound semiconductor devices of controlled nanostructures in tandem with low-cost solar concentrators.

The candidate will be recognised as currently operating at the very highest levels within their discipline and will have the drive and capacity to generate significant opportunity for growth and development at the University of Surrey. Through the provision of strong support and strategic investment behind these posts, the University anticipates that the candidate will help articulate, shape and deliver an exceptionally vibrant research agenda for the future.

Informal enquiries may be made to Professor Ravi Silva, Director ATI, s.silva@surrey.ac.uk. For further information about the ATI please visit www.surrey.ac.uk/ati.  Candidates will be required to include with their application a two-page outline research proposal.

For an application pack containing further details of this position, and to apply on-line, please go to www.surrey.ac.uk/discoveryou. If you are unable to apply on-line please contact Miss Louise Wilkinson on Tel: +44 (0) 1483 686106 or email: Louise.Wilkinson@surrey.ac.uk