Enhancing Solar Cells and Catalysts using Nanomaterials: Professor Joe Shapter

Abstract

One of the most important issues facing society is the ability to supply the world’s energy requirements via both environmentally responsible and sustainable means. Renewable energy, and in particular solar energy, has the potential to address current issues in energy production but costs, both in terms of the energy required for production and final price to the consumer, as well flexibility in terms of system deployment are problems that will need to be addressed. Reducing the environmental footprint in various chemical processes is also very important. This talk will focus on work using nanomaterials to make new architectures for solar cells or new generation nonmetallic catalysts. Several possible structures will be explored and the disadvantages and advantages of each will be examined.

Bio

Joe Shapter obtained his Ph. D. from the University of Toronto in 1990 working with Prof. J. C. Polanyi on the detection of small molecules and the determination of their energies. From 1990 to 1996, he worked at the University of Western Ontario (London, Ontario) building a scanning tunnelling microscope and lecturing first year chemistry.

In 1996, he moved to Flinders University and became Professor of Nanotechnology and was Dean of the School of Chemical and Physical Sciences until the end of 2016. In early 2018, he took up a role as Pro Vice Chancellor (Research Infrastructure) at the University of Queensland and is a Senior Group Leader in the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology. He was the founding Director of the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) funded Centre of Expertise in Energetic Materials (CEEM) and was the Director of the South Australian node of the Australian Microscopy and Microanalysis Facility (AMMRF) until 2017.