Joseph M. Luther is currently the acting leader of the Hybrid and Nanoscale Materials Chemistry group within the Chemical Materials and Nanoscience Center at NREL. He is a PI in the Center for Hybrid Organic Inorganic Semiconductors for Energy (CHOISE, an EFRC funded by DOE-BES), leads a DOD-funded perovskite effort at NREL and serves as a contributing team member in the SETO funded efforts.
His research is on developing low cost, solution processed photovoltaic technologies specifically by manipulating growth, materials chemistry, electronic coupling using colloidal nanocrystals, and halide perovskite-inspired semiconductors. Since 2010 his group has contributed to three separate world record efficiency photovoltaic devices, starting a new category recognized on NREL’s best research cell efficiency chart. Along with Art Nozik, Matt Beard, and other colleagues, he developed the first solar cell to show external quantum efficiency exceeding unity via multiple exciton generation. He has twice been awarded NREL’s highest impact publication award and named by Clarivate analytics to the Highly Cited Researcher List.
He obtained B.S. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from North Carolina State University in 2001. At NCSU he began researching with Salah Bedair, who first fabricated a tandem junction solar cell. He obtained a MSEE from ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ while researching defects within NREL’s Measurements and Characterization Division. In 2005, under Art Nozik, he studied semiconductor nanocrystals for MEG and built the first design of a QD solar cell for which he was awarded a Ph.D. (Physics, Colorado School of Mines). As a postdoc under the direction Paul Alivisatos at the University of California and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, he studied synthesis and ion exchange reactions in colloidal nanomaterials. In 2009 he rejoined NREL as a staff scientist.
