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Henry Snaith

Henry Snaith in 2015
Born
Henry James Snaith

January 1978 (age 46)[6][1]
EducationGresham's School[7]
Alma mater
Awards
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
ThesisPolymer based photovoltaic diodes (2005)
Doctoral advisorRichard Friend[3][4]
Other academic advisorsMichael Grätzel
Doctoral studentsVarun Sivaram[5]
Websitewww2.physics.ox.ac.uk/contacts/people/snaith

Henry James Snaith (born 1978)[6] FRS is a professor in physics in the Clarendon Laboratory at the University of Oxford.[8] Research from his group has led to the creation of a new research field, based on halide perovskites for use as solar absorbers. Many individuals who were PhD students and postdoctoral researchers in Snaith's group have now established research groups, independent research portfolios and commercial enterprises. He co-founded Oxford Photovoltaics in 2010 to commercialise perovskite based tandem solar cells.

Education

Snaith was educated at Gresham's School, an independent school in Norfolk, from 1989 to 1996.[7] He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Bristol, followed by postgraduate research at the University of Cambridge where he was awarded a PhD in 2005 for research on polymer solar cells supervised by Richard Friend.[4][3][9]

Career and research

Following his PhD, Snaith did two years of postdoctoral research with Michael Grätzel at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).[3][10] He returned to the Cavendish Laboratory as a Junior Research Fellow at Clare College, Cambridge in 2006. Following this, Snaith was appointed a Research Councils UK (RCUK) research fellow while at the University of Oxford,[year needed] then promoted to Reader and Professor.[year needed] According to a biography from the Materials Research Society (MRS):

His research has been focused on new materials and device architectures for future generation low-cost photovoltaic. Snaith's achievements include the first demonstration of "gyroid" structured titania for dye solar cells, the first demonstration of mesoporous single crystals of anatase TiO2 and the recent discovery of high efficiency solid-state organometal trihalide perovskite-based thin film and mesosuperstructured solar cells. In 2010, he founded Oxford Photovoltaics Ltd., which is commercialising perovskite solar cells for building integrated and utility scale photovoltaic applications.[11]

Snaith's research has been funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).[12]

Awards and honours

Snaith was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2015.[13] His certificate of election reads:

Professor Henry Snaith has pioneered the development of hybrid materials for energy and photovoltaics through an interdisciplinary combination of materials synthesis, device development, advanced optoelectronic characterisations and theoretical studies. He has created new materials with advanced functionality and enhanced understanding of fundamental mechanisms. His recent discovery of extremely efficient thin-film solar cells manufactured from organic-inorganic metal halide perovskites has reset aspirations within the photovoltaics community. His work has started a new field of research, attracting both academic and industrial following, propelled by the prospect of delivering a higher efficiency photovoltaic technology at a much lower cost than existing silicon PV.[8]

In 2012, Snaith was Institute of Physics Clifford Paterson Medal and Prize for "his important contributions to the field of excitonic solar cells".[14]

In 2014, Snaith was awarded the MRS Outstanding Young Investigator Award.[15] He was awarded the Patterson Medal of the Institute of Physics in 2012, and named as one of Nature's ten people who mattered in 2013.[1]

In 2015, Snaith was ranked number two on the list of The World's Most Influential Scientific Minds, a citation analysis identifying the scientists who have made the most significant impact within their respective field of study by the Intellectual Property (IP) and Science business of Thomson Reuters.[16] In May 2016, he was awarded the EU-40 Materials Prize from the European Material Research Society.[17]

In October 2017, he was awarded the Institute of Physics James Joule Medal and Prize for the discovery and development of organic-inorganic metal-halide perovskite solar cells.[18] In September 2020, he was awarded the Becquerel Prize in honour of his contributions to the use of perovskites as solar cells.[citation needed]

References

  1. ^ a b c Anon (2013). "365 days: Nature's 10, Ten people who mattered this year". Nature. 504 (7480): 357–65. Bibcode:2013Natur.504..357.. doi:10.1038/504357a. PMID 24352276.
  2. ^ "2018 UK honorees". Blavatnik Awards Young Scientists. New York Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 17 January 2020.
  3. ^ a b c d "Prof Henry Snaith, Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer". oxfordpv.com. Archived from the original on 22 May 2015.
  4. ^ a b Snaith, H. J.; Arias, A. C.; Morteani, A. C.; Silva, C.; Friend, R. H. (2002). "Charge Generation Kinetics and Transport Mechanisms in Blended Polyfluorene Photovoltaic Devices". Nano Letters. 2 (12): 1353. Bibcode:2002NanoL...2.1353S. doi:10.1021/nl0257418.
  5. ^ Sivaram, Varun (2014). Simulation, synthesis, sunlight: enhancing electronic transport in solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells (DPhil thesis). University of Oxford. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.596004.
  6. ^ a b Anon (2018). "Henry James Snaith". companieshouse.gov.uk. London: Companies House. Archived from the original on 8 April 2019.
  7. ^ a b "Old Greshamians". greshams.com. Archived from the original on 25 August 2017.
  8. ^ a b "Professor Henry Snaith FRS". London: The Royal Society. Archived from the original on 2 May 2015.
  9. ^ Snaith, Henry James (2005). Polymer based photovoltaic diodes. lib.cam.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. OCLC 890157906. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.614761.
  10. ^ Snaith, H. J.; Moule, A. J.; Klein, C. D.; Meerholz, K.; Friend, R. H.; Grätzel, M. (2007). "Efficiency Enhancements in Solid-State Hybrid Solar Cells via Reduced Charge Recombination and Increased Light Capture". Nano Letters. 7 (11): 3372–6. Bibcode:2007NanoL...7.3372S. doi:10.1021/nl071656u. PMID 17918905.
  11. ^ "Outstanding Young Investigator Award 2014". Materials Research Society. Archived from the original on 3 September 2014.
  12. ^ "UK Government Research Grants awarded to Henry Snaith". Research Councils UK. Archived from the original on 23 May 2015.
  13. ^ "Professor Henry Snaith FRS". London: Royal Society. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where:

    "All text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License." --"Royal Society Terms, conditions and policies". Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 9 March 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)

  14. ^ "2012 Paterson medal and prize". Institute of Physics. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
  15. ^ Anon (2014). "Henry J. Snaith named 2014 MRS Outstanding Young Investigator for perovskite hybrid solar cells". MRS Bulletin. 39 (4). journals.cambridge.org: 375. doi:10.1557/mrs.2014.76.
  16. ^ "Worlds most influential scientific minds report 2015". stateofinnovation.thomsonreuters.com. Archived from the original on 28 December 2016. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  17. ^ "The European Material Research Society". european-mrs.com.
  18. ^ Physics, Institute of. "IOP Award Winners 2017". www.iop.org. Retrieved 15 November 2017.