Scientific Committee 2024

Ignacio Antón is Full Professor at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and Head of the Instruments and Systems Integration research group at the Institute of Solar Energy, focused on high efficiency PV technologies, particularly in the fields of applications, characterization and system design and integration. One of the current research lines aims at the modeling of the solar resource and energy production in VIPV, as well as on the development of characterization procedures and equipment for PV curved surfaces. He is member of the IEC TC82 WG7 and participates in the project on the international standardization of the vehicle integrated photovoltaics.

Kaining Ding studied material science at the RWTH-Aachen University in Germany. He is with the Forschungszentrum Jülich in Germany since 2010 and currently leading the silicon heterojunction solar cells and modules department at Forschungszentrum Jülich. Research experience and interest include silicon heterojunction solar cells, modules, applications (e.g. vehicle integrated PV) and systems (e.g. PV integration into road traffic).

Nicholas Ekins-Daukes (Ned) is Associate Professor at the School of Photovoltaic & Renewable Energy engineering at UNSW Sydney, Australia. Ned’s research aims to fundamentally increase the efficiency of photovoltaic solar cells towards the ultimate efficiency limit for solar power conversion of 93%. The technologies that he develops have application for example on spacecraft, terrestrial solar concentrator systems and electric vehicles. From 2008-17, Ned worked in the Physics department at Imperial College London and prior to that at the School of Physics at the University of Sydney. From 2003-05 he was a JSPS research fellow at the Toyota Technological Institute, Japan. Ned holds a PhD and MSc from Imperial College and MSci in Physics & Electronics from the University of St Andrews.  

Keiichi Komoto is working as a senior consultant at the Mizuho Research and Technologies, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan. He has been in the field of PV technology, especially from viewpoints of environmental and socio-economic aspects. He is in charge of organizing the IEA PVPS Task17: PV and Transport, which is aiming to discuss how to integrate PV into transport sector. As well, he is contributing to the IEA PVPS Task12: PV Sustainability, as a Japanese representative.

Ivan Gordon is Head of the Photovoltaic Technology and Energy Systems group of IMEC in Belgium and full professor in Photovoltaics at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the international scientific journal Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells. Since January 2016, he has been the coordinator of the joint program on Photovoltaics of the European Energy Research Alliance (EERA) and a steering committee member of the European Technology and Innovation Platform Photovoltaics (ETIP-PV). Research experience and interests include silicon cell and module technology, perovskite and tandem technology, applications (e.g. vehicle integrated PV, floating PV, etc.) and digitalization of PV.

Bonna Newman (Lightyear, the Netherlands)

Robby Peibst received the Diploma in Technical Physics from the TU Ilmenau, Germany in 2005, and the Ph.D. degree in the field of microelectronics from the Leibniz University Hannover, Germany in 2010. In 2010, he joined the Institute for Solar Energy Research Hamelin, Germany, where he has been leading the group “Emerging Solar Cell Technologies” since 2013. Since 2016, he has been a Professor with the Leibniz University Hannover. His recent research focus has shifted towards special applications of photovoltaics, in particular VIPV. In this context, he is coordinating the national funded project “Street”, in which an electrically-driven light commercial vehicle with VIPV for range extension was developed.

PhD-Eng. Eduardo Román received the PhD in Photovoltaics in 2007. At present, he is leading the PV group within the Solar Area, Energy and Environment Division in TECNALIA (Spain). His focus is mainly on Renewable Energy Sources with emphasis on Photovoltaics (especially BOS components, PV modules and electronics, BIPV and CPV technologies). Among many other roles, he has been on the Management Board of the Spanish Photovoltaic Industry Association as well as on the Direction Committee of UNEF since 2013. In 2018 he was also appointed as member of the Steering Committee of the European PV Technology and Innovation Platform.

Joe Simon is a senior researcher and the program area lead for solar manufacturing and competitiveness at the National Renewable Energy Lab of the U.S. Department of Energy where he coordinates a portfolio of industry-integrated projects that seek to increase the speed and scale of solar adoption across multiple sectors, including emerging work with vehicle integrated photovoltaics. Additionally, he has had development or leadership roles with several national and international collegiate competitions including the Solar Decathlon, the Solar District Cup, and the EnergyTech University Prize that prioritize and encourage innovation. He is a licensed Architect with an Masters of Business Administration, Masters of Architecture, and Bachelors of Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. 

Zhengrong Shi (Sunman Energy, China)

Loïc Tous is leading various projects related to automotive applications at AGC Europe R&D center located in Gosselies, Belgium since September 2022. He graduated as a materials science engineer at INSA Lyon (France) in 2009 and completed his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at the KU Leuven (Belgium) 2014. From 2014 to September 2022, he worked as a senior researcher and later on as a team leader of the PV module activities at imec, Belgium. Since 2014, he has been leading various projects dealing with VIPV and he is enthusiastic about the many possible applications and products that are possible with VIPV!

Dr. Pierre J. Verlinden is a PV technology expert and has been working in the field of photovoltaics for more than 40 years. He is currently Managing Director of AMROCK, a PV technology consulting company, Adjunct Professor at Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, and at UNSW in Sydney. He is also a non-executive director at Oxford PV (UK) and BTimaging (Australia). Dr. Verlinden has received the 2016 IEEE William Cherry Award and the 2019 Becquerel Prize for his work at the forefront of PV technology and is also recipient of the 2017 Chinese Government Friendship Award. Previous roles include Chief Scientist at Trina Solar (China); Principal Scientist at Solar Systems (Australia); Solar Technology and Operation Manager at Origin Energy Solar (Australia); Director of R&D at SunPower (USA); Assistant Professor at UC Louvain (Belgium).

Moez Jomâa is the founder and CEO of Infinite Mobility, a Norwegian company that develops solar-powered lightweight vehicles. Before establishing his own venture, Dr. Jomâa was for 15 years a Senior Scientist at SINTEF, Scandinavia's largest research organisation. With a profound expertise in solar and electric mobility, he has successfully managed numerous R&D projects both nationally and internationally. Dr. Jomâa is also an alumnus of Sorbonne University, where he earned his PhD.

Christophe Ballif is director of the PV-Lab from EPFL and of the CSEM Sustainable Energy Center both located in Neuchâtel.
He (co-) authored over 600 journal and technical papers, as well as several patents. He is an elected member of the SATW, member of the scientific council of the Swiss AEE, and member of the board of the EPFL Energy center. In 2016, he recieved the Becquerel prize for his contributions to the field of high efficiency photovoltaics.