Illinois Governor Pat Quinn Keynotes International Symposium on Optoelectronics Materials and Devices - SolarStar

BOLINGBROOK, Ill., Jul 18, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- On July 12-14, 2012, experts from across the solar photovoltaics  and infrared (IR) photovoltaics disciplines met in downtown Chicago to review and discuss recent progress and future trends in the rapidly advancing fields of photonic materials and devices at the 2012 International Symposium  on Optoelectronic Materials and Devices. The symposium featured speeches from Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, Cook county Board President Toni Preckwinkle, and Illinois Lt. Governor Sheila Simon. Presentations were also given by members of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Department of Energy - SunShot Initiative including Dr. Nibir Dhar and Dr. Elaine Ulrich, respectively. The symposium was jointly organized by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the Shanghai Center for Photovoltaics, Episolar, Inc., the Microphysics Laboratory of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), and Sivananthan Laboratories, Inc. Members of various government agencies participated in the symposium including Dr. Priyalal Wijewarnasuriya and Dr. Greg Brill of the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL).

The three days concluded with the Institute for Solar Photovoltaic Innovation, Research and Edu-training (InSPIRE) kick-off with Congressman Danny Davis giving the keynote remarks. InSPIRE aims to train Illinois"" workforce in cleantech, including solar technology, to secure Illinois"" rightful place in the green-collar economy. "Illinois possesses all the ingredients for securing a very successful, green future. It has world-class universities, terrific national labs, many Fortune 500 companies, and it has the country""s highest concentration of physicists to innovate the next generation of solar technology. Now we need to combine these ingredients into a winning formula for the future, and InSPIRE""s kick-off meeting aimed to jump-start that process." - Raja Krishnamoorthi, President, InSPIRE.

"The fields of solar and infrared photovoltaics have many common technical elements, yet few conferences bring together experts from both. One of the goals of the symposium was to facilitate the cross-pollination of ideas that will mutually benefit these technologies." - Dr. chris Grein, Chief Scientific Officer, Sivananthan Laboratories, Inc.

Leading scientists from various government agencies, universities and industry presented recent advances on solar cells and IR devices including thin-film solar cells, very high efficiency multijunction solar cells, heteroepitaxial crystal growth, antimonide- and HgCdTe-based IR sensors, quantum dots, photodetectors and semiconductor nanostructures.

This year""s symposium was 8th in the series and the 3rd consecutive symposium held in Chicago. The goal of the symposium is to bring together distinguished members of the optoelectronic materials society to interact with each other and learn of exciting developments in their respective fields first hand. Furthermore, the symposium provides an excellent opportunity for many students and faculty to network with these renowned speakers