Associate Professor Lei Zhai has been named a Scialog Fellow by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA) and will receive a grant for his research “Investigating Charge Transport and Recombination in Bulk Heterojunction Organic Photovoltaics with Conjugated Polymer Columnar Structures on Graphene.”
Zhai is among the second group of recipients awarded through Scialog®, a major new research initiative. This multi-year grant program accelerates the work of 21st-century science by funding early career scientists (either individuals or multi-disciplinary teams) to pursue transformative research, in dialog with their fellow grantees, on crucial issues of scientific inquiry.
All of the Fellows received grants for research in solar energy conversion of either $100,000 for individual researchers or $250,000 for qualifying teams of researchers. The grants fund innovative research that has transformative potential for rapid translational application and development by business and industry. They are designed to jump-start and accelerate research in the hope that federal and private funding sources will then extend development of this research and its applications. The research topic, Improving Efficiencies in Solar Energy Conversion, was chosen because reliable domestic sources of renewable energy are critically important for U.S. security, global stability and an environmentally sustainable economy.