Fall brings a new team leader and a new type of simulation to run. In addition, the team has started working with partners to synthesize promising compounds. The overall goal remains constant, however: to identify materials that can generate clean, renewable energy.
It’s hard to believe that fall is already almost over in Cambridge! The organic photovoltaic devices, known as leaves, were brilliant shades of red, yellow, and orange in Harvard Yard. The season has brought changes to our research team and exciting published research.
Last month we wished Dr. Ed Pyzer-Knapp farewell with cake and celebrations; he has accepted a position at IBM at a brand new computing research center in England! His time as a postdoctoral scholar at Harvard has been outstandingly productive, with six papers published in just under two years. Thanks for your hard work, Ed! We look forward to your remaining bunch of publications.
Dr. Steven Lopez is a Department of Energy EERE Postdoctoral Researcher and is now leading The Clean Energy Project subgroup. He is undertaking a new screening study that complements our initial screening of electron-donor materials for organic photovoltaics (OPV). This new work requires the dedicated network of World Community Grid volunteers to help us explore the chemical space of non-fullerene acceptor materials. These materials may provide an avenue to the next generation of record-setting OPV devices!
Over the summer we began collaboration with the Briseño group at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. In the near future, they will test our predictions by synthesizing the materials computed by World Community Grid. We look forward to working closely with this great group!
We would personally like to thank all of our dedicated volunteers; the scale of this work wouldn’t be possible without you! We look forward to continuing our great work with World Community Grid in helping us identify materials for clean and renewable energy.