Professor Sarah Kurtz, former senior research fellow at the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) and now a professor at the University of California Merced, sits down with guest host Rebecca Saive and Sebastian Husein to chat about all-things energy related. Listen to her take on what the "coolest" photovoltaic tech is, how she feels about her elec…

Dr. Parikhit Sinha from First Solar—the only solar manufacturer to bring thin-film solar panels to the gigawatt scale (so far...looking at you, perovskite-enthusiasts)—joins STEMoirs to share about the winding path of his scientific career. We hear about his start at Harvard University, his transition into a science degree, moving to Seattle and ho…

Lisa Fischer of E3G—Third Generation Environmentalism—joins STEMoirs. We look back at the influences that brought her to work on climate economics and policy, and hear about the urgent work being done at E3G to accelerate the transition to climate safety across all levels of society. Lisa's insights point to keeping people at the core of innovation…

Professor Anna Fontcuberta i Morral from the Laboratory of Semiconductor Materials at EPFL in Switzerland joins STEMoirs. We hear about her journey from growing up in the outskirts of Barcelona, her time in Paris and Pasadena, and now about her work in Lausanne, Switzerland. She tells us about where her inspirations for material growth come from, a…

Dr. Camilla Jensen joins STEMoirs. She is the founder of InterPlay, LLC where she uses her background in industrial design engineering, Lean Startup methods, and expertise in LEGO® Serious Play® facilitation to enable organizations to secure growth through venture-based innovation principles. Her work studying play has revealed that a play mindset …

Dr. Albert Polman, professor of photonic materials for photovoltaics at the University of Amsterdam, joins STEMoirs. We hear about his scientific journey, the thoughtful questions he asked himself on setting up and maintaining a meaningful scientific career, what he has found most rewarding, a bit about nanophotonics, and what is possibly his favor…

Eva Pettinato, a guidance, navigation, and controls aerospace engineer, joins STEMoirs. She tells us about her path becoming a rocket scientist and engineer—which started with her belief that engineers only drive trains, but led to her double checking components of a 90+ foot long rocket she helped build while lying on a launch pad at Kennedy Space…

On this episode of STEMoirs, Dr. Amanda Youssef talks about her journey from Lebanon to MIT, the cultural differences of working in Germany and France (hint: may involve sunbathing after work and hiking on weekends), and now living on the west coast of the US. We hear about oxygen complexes and crystal defects in silicon solar cells, how she naviga…

We're back! For now. Here's a quick update about what's been happening over this past year for me, the host, Sebastian Husein. New episodes coming out soon :) Music credits: RetroFuture Clean and Furious Freak by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/…

Back in August of 2020, Professor Giulia Tagliabue sat down with Sebastian to discuss her life as a scientist, including her time at Caltech, her work in photocatalysis, her thoughts on diversity, and her love of rock climbing. Professor Tagliabue was recently presented with 1st place in the Rising Stars of Light Award by the Nature journal, Light:…

Sebastian sits down with Rebecca Saive, assistant professor at the University of Twente and Co-founder and CTO of Effectively Transparent Contacts (ETC) Solar. We hear how her first interactions with kitchen experiments and solar cells as a child shaped her science journey, what it's like to found a solar startup company, her passion for dance, the…

Sebastian is joined by the notorious M.I.B. - Mariana I. Bertoni, a professor at Arizona State University in the School of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering. We hear why she owns a brewery in Minnesota, the influences that guided her on this professorship path, how she handles the pressures, and her views on the duties of scientists to s…

Professor Zak Holman from Arizona State University joins Sebastian to talk about his cats, his research in photovoltaic devices and solar energy, and his time as a post-doc in Switzerland. With special guest appearance from "El Chapo". Music credits: RetroFuture Clean and Furious Freak by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Comm…

A "quick" update about the future of the podcast and what we hope to accomplish. Moving forward, the podcast will mainly be hosted by Sebastian Husein. Guests on the show will still be mostly from the solar energy research community for now, but STEMoirs will branch out to talk to researchers in all other fields of science, tech, engineering, and m…

Sebastian Husein and Joe Karas talk to Professor Alex Freundlich from the University of Houston about solar cells made from moon dust, cutting frozen chickens with sunlight, and why flies in your vacuum deposition chambers can make your results a little buggy. Music credits: RetroFuture Clean and Furious Freak by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Lic…

This is an archived episode of STEMoirs, previously called PodQESST. Sebastian Husein speaks with Abhishek Iyer, Ph.D. candidate from the University of Delaware and co-founder of solar energy startup SHIO, winner of the 2018 LaunchR clean technology innovation competition. Abhishek explains how he prepares for pitching competitions, and how importa…

Sebastian Husein talks to David Needell at the California Institute of Technology about tiny, luminscent balls for solar cells, the 2018 World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion held in Hawaii, and how David might be inadvertently causing volcanoes to erupt all over the globe. Music credits: RetroFuture Clean and Furious Freak by Kevin Ma…

This is an archived episode of STEMoirs, previously called PodQESST. Joe and Sebastian interview Simone Bernardini, Ph.D. in Materials Science at Arizona State University. They discuss electron lifetimes in silicon for solar cell applications, the process of publishing in academic journals, and Simone's enjoyment of the sun. The work discussed can,…

This is an archived episode of STEMoirs, previously called PodQESST. Joe and Sebastian chat with April Jeffries, a Ph.D. in Materials Science at Arizona State University, and Chief Technical Officer and co-founder of start-up company Reactive Inks, LLC. In this episode, they discuss her work in metal contact innovations for solar cells and getting …

This is an archived episode of STEMoirs, previously called PodQESST. Sebastian and Joe meet with Pablo Guimera Coll from the Canary Islands in Spain, winner of the 2015 National Science Foundation "Perfect Pitch" competition, co-founder of semiconductor startup company Crystal Sonic, and Ph.D. student at Arizona State University. They discuss how P…

This is an archived episode of STEMoirs, previously called PodQESST. Sebastian and Joe are joined by Tara Nietzold, who discusses her work as a Ph.D. student using synchrotron x-rays on CIGS solar cells, what it's like working at a national lab facility, and how she's gotten to travel the world with her work. Sebastian and Joe experience technical …

This is an archived episode of STEMoirs, previously called PodQESST. Sebastian and Joe meet with Rebecca Glaudell, Ph.D. candidate at the California Institute of Technology. She discusses how she got started in graduate school, her work developing II-VI semiconductors to improve solar cell efficiency, and her involvement as president of the student…

This is an archived episode of STEMoirs, previously called PodQESST. Meet the podcast hosts! Sebastian Husein and Joe Karas, Ph.D. candidates at Arizona State University, sit down to chat about how they got into graduate school and their research projects. Joe's work is in replacing silver contacts on solar cells with copper to reduce solar panel c…