Professor of Chemistry Wins $115,000 to Pursue Solar Research Project

Andrew Rappe, Professor of Chemistry, has received an Energy Commercialization Institute Award for Alternative Energy Translational Research and Commercialization. The honor includes $115,000 to help finance his collaborative research project, “Ferroelectric Semiconductor Thin-films for Inexpensive and Efficient Solar Cells.”

Rappe’s team will work to develop a thin-film process and solar cell technology based on a new class of materials—ferroelectric semiconductors—which are more cost-effective to produce. The ferroelectric semiconductors absorb visible light and then separate the leftover carriers. This method will help pave the way for the future of less expensive solar cell fabrication techniques.

Rappe was recently selected as a recipient of a 2011-2012 Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching. He is also the co-director of Pennergy, the Penn Center for Energy Innovation, which launched in September, 2009. The Center’s mission is to bring together world-class researchers to solve scientific and technological problems through the efficient use of current energy sources.

Arts & Sciences News

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Melissa Wilde Named Davidson Kennedy Professor in the College

Wilde’s research focuses on how religious groups respond to societal change.

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Karen Redrobe Receives Society for Cinema and Media Studies Distinguished Pedagogy Award

Redrobe, Elliot and Roslyn Jaffe Endowed Professor in Film Studies, was honored for “outstanding pedagogical achievements.”

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Assistant Professor Simcha Gross Wins Jewish Book Council Award

His book “Babylonian Jews and Sasanian Imperialism in Late Antiquity” was honored in the category of scholarship.

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Nikhil Anand Named Daniel Braun Silvers, W’98, WG’99, and Robert Peter Silvers, C’02, Family Presidential Associate Professor of Anthropology

Anand is an environmental anthropologist whose research focuses on cities, infrastructure, state power, and climate change.

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Timothy Rommen Named Martin Meyerson Endowed Professor in Interdisciplinary Studies

Rommen, Penn’s inaugural Vice Provost for the Arts, specializes in the music of the Caribbean with research interests that include popular music, sacred music, critical theory, and more.

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Adriana Petryna named Francis E. Johnston Term Professor of Anthropology

Petryna focuses on the socio-political nature of science, how populations are enrolled in experimental knowledge-production, and what becomes of citizenship and ethics in the process.

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