James Bullock and Thomas Allen, both PhD students in Engineering have taken out awards at the 40th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, the oldest and most prestigious conference in the field.
James received the Best Student Paper Award for his development of a novel approach that increases the output power of solar cells whilst at the same time simplifying their fabrication procedure. The award recognises outstanding work by students in each technical area.
Thomas received the award for the best poster at the conference. His winning poster outlined results from his research in the application of black silicon to solar cells, which has shown the potential to increase the amount of light that solar cells can absorb, thereby increasing their efficiency.
Thomas was thrilled with the outcome of his award.
“It was nice to have my poster receive the amount of interest that it did as I was able to meet many academics and researchers during the poster session. After receiving the award my poster was moved to the lobby of the conference hall which gave my work further exposure.”
Professor Andres Cuevas is the research supervisor for both students and was thrilled with their recent achievements.
“Both are very pleasant chaps and are extremely committed, hard-working and intelligent. They are also quite independent as researchers, and they come up with bright ideas that they push until they achieve success.”
James has also been awarded a Fellowship to spend eight months at the University of California at Berkeley, starting in November. He is the recipient of The American Australian Association’s Education Fund award for emerging Australian innovators and professionals, which provides up to US$40,000 for students to undertake research and study on sustainability, engineering and medicine at prestigious American institutions.