Professor Iain McCulloch has been presented with the Wolfson Research Merit Award in recognition of his outstanding work on semiconducting materials.
The Royal Society announced 14 new award winners who will each receive five years funding as an accolade to their exceptional and ground-breaking research.
Jointly funded by the Wolfson Foundation and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the esteemed Wolfson Research Merit Awards were established in 2000 to attract and retain respected and talented scientists with exceptional potential in the UK.
Iain McCulloch joined Imperial College London in 2007 and is Professor of Polymer Materials in the Department of Chemistry. His research focuses on improving the performance of organic semiconducting materials, such as polythiophenes, which are used in photovoltaics to generate electricity from the sun.
On receiving the award, Professor McCulloch said: “I am delighted to receive the Wolfson Research Merit Award. I’ve been very fortunate to work with many talented people in my group through many years, and the award is a great recognition of all the hard work and progress made by all of them.”
One aspect of Professor McCulloch’s work focuses on improving the efficiency and affordability of solar cells. Current solar panels use crystalline silicon as the main ‘solar capturing’ material, but they are expensive and require large amounts of energy to produce. Organic semi-conductors offer an affordable alternative, as he explains.
“Producing low-cost, sustainable energy is one of the most important global challenges in the coming decades. This relentless increase in global demand for energy and the continued use of fossil fuels as the primary energy source, is creating increasing carbon emissions problems. My research group is synthesising and testing new photoactive organic polymers, which have the potential to allow less expensive manufacturing processes to print solar cells, in the same way as a newspaper is produced in large reels and on flexible carriers.
“To make these polymers commercially viable products, we are now working to improve the design so that the polymer materials can capture more of the sun’s light, can more efficiently generate energy on sun exposure, and will be stable to harsh environmental conditions,” added Professor McCulloch.
His work is interdisciplinary - a feature of his research that he particularly enjoys: “Our field is at the boundaries of several disciplines and brings together chemists, physicists and engineers in a collaborative way. We are always learning from each other.”
Jointly funded by the Wolfson Foundation and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the esteemed Wolfson Research Merit Awards were established in 2000 to attract and retain respected and talented scientists with exceptional potential in the UK.
Iain McCulloch joined Imperial College London in 2007 and is Professor of Polymer Materials in the Department of Chemistry. His research focuses on improving the performance of organic semiconducting materials, such as polythiophenes, which are used in photovoltaics to generate electricity from the sun.
On receiving the award, Professor McCulloch said: “I am delighted to receive the Wolfson Research Merit Award. I’ve been very fortunate to work with many talented people in my group through many years, and the award is a great recognition of all the hard work and progress made by all of them.”
One aspect of Professor McCulloch’s work focuses on improving the efficiency and affordability of solar cells. Current solar panels use crystalline silicon as the main ‘solar capturing’ material, but they are expensive and require large amounts of energy to produce. Organic semi-conductors offer an affordable alternative, as he explains.
“Producing low-cost, sustainable energy is one of the most important global challenges in the coming decades. This relentless increase in global demand for energy and the continued use of fossil fuels as the primary energy source, is creating increasing carbon emissions problems. My research group is synthesising and testing new photoactive organic polymers, which have the potential to allow less expensive manufacturing processes to print solar cells, in the same way as a newspaper is produced in large reels and on flexible carriers.
“To make these polymers commercially viable products, we are now working to improve the design so that the polymer materials can capture more of the sun’s light, can more efficiently generate energy on sun exposure, and will be stable to harsh environmental conditions,” added Professor McCulloch.
His work is interdisciplinary - a feature of his research that he particularly enjoys: “Our field is at the boundaries of several disciplines and brings together chemists, physicists and engineers in a collaborative way. We are always learning from each other.”
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