PhD in Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Current position: Associate Professor at Southern University of Science and Technology, China
Research focus: perovksite solar cells, organic solar cells, thermoelectric generators
Within the scope of the Green Talents programme, Aung joined the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPIP) in 2013. Thanks to his research stay in Germany, he was able to initiate a collaborative study between the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) and MPIP. His prize-winning PhD work led him to a postdoctoral fellowship under Nobel Laureate Professor Alan Heeger at UCSB.
2014 Recipient of Young Thousand Talents Programme, China
CV as submitted for the Green Talents award (2012):
University of California, Santa Barbara, United States of America
Research focus: design, architecture and fabrication of excitonic solar cells
Most recently a postdoctoral fellow under Nobel laureate Alan Heeger, Aung Ko Ko Kyaw is breaking new ground in the field of excitonic solar cells and making a significant contribution to the economic viability of solar energy.
Aung Ko Ko Kyaw is focused on the design, architecture and fabrication of excitonic solar cells, which include organic photovoltaic cells (OPVs) and dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). His achievements include the development of air-stable inverted structure OPVs and the groundbreaking development of low-cost DSSCs using transparent and conductive carbon-based electrodes, which totally eliminates the need for expensive conventional electrodes. Kyaw envisions a future with solar panels on every roof, and emphasizes the importance of cross-disciplinary collaboration to achieve the kind of cost reductions that this will require. “Working hand in hand with chemists and material scientists, I believe it will be possible to reduce the cost of solar-generated electricity for sustainable growth.”
A PhD in Electrical Engineering, Kyaw has co-authored two chapters in the fields of energy harvesting and green photonics and published 19 papers in international peer-reviewed journals, which have been cited over 250 times. His prize-winning PhD work led him to a postdoctoral fellowship under Nobel laureate Prof. Alan Heeger at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he focused on morphology-controlled bulk-heterojunction solar cells.
The jury was impressed with Kyaw’s ingenuity and tremendous enthusiasm for developing new materials and manufacturing techniques for solar cells, adding that this kind of research is fundamental to the future economic viability and sustainability of solar energy.
