Bill Baron Award

In Memory of Bill N. Baron 1943 - 1992
Bill N. Baron served the University of Delaware and the photovoltaic community from 1975 to 1992 as a scientist, manager and deputy director at the Institute of Energy Conversion. Throughout his professional life Bill was especially interested in students and their education. He devoted many hours to teaching both graduates and undergraduates how to carry out creative and effective research in photovoltaics.
Bill's family, colleagues and friends wanted to assure that students would continue to benefit from Bill's concern about their education. To this end, the Bill N. Baron Fellowship was established. The Bill N. Baron Fellowship is awarded to two graduate students from the University of Delaware, with a cumulative index of 3.0 or above. The nominee(s) must be carrying out or have recently completed an exceptional piece of supervised research in engineering, science or energy policy in the renewable energy field with a strong preference for research emphasizing photovoltaics.

In recognition of their contributions to Photovoltaic Research and Development at the University of Delaware.
The following is a list of the award winners:
2005:
Graduate Award, Jonathan Frey, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, who has completed his Masters Degree research program. Jon completed his thesis titled "Imaging of Spatial Non-Uniformities and the Characterization of Defects in Photovoltaic Devices using a Laser-Beam-Induced-Current (LBIC) Mapping Technique," in January, 2006. Currently, he is working at the Institute of Energy Conversion as a limited term researcher designing and constructing a custom laser system for investigation of laser fired rear contacts, recrystallization, ablation and monolithic integration.

Graduate Award, Dusan Spernjak, Department of Mechanical Engineering, who is currently a graduate student working toward a Ph.D. His thesis topic is "Water Management in PEM Fuel Cells." Dusan graduated as the best student at the Faculty of Technical Sciences at the University of Novi Sad, Yugoslavia. Prior to coming to Delaware, Dusan was a lecturer at Novi Sad and had industrial experience in energy related areas. During his undergraduate career, Dusan won several prestigious awards. He is instrumental to the operation of the laboratory doing fuel cell research at the University of Delaware.


2004:
Graduate Award, Ozgenc Ebil, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, who has completed his Ph.D. research program and defended his dissertation in February 2005. Ozgenc's research has involved the deposition and characterization of silicon thin-films by aluminum-induced crystallization. He has mastered a large variety of analytical techniques, as well as, becoming an expert on hot wire chemical vapor deposition. His research is the first to address the effect of different deposition methods on the Si crystallization process and to report on Al induced crystallization above the eutectic point. He has presented his work at several conferences and in a journal publication.

Undergraduate Award, Holly Lynn Schaeffer, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, studied the effects of cobalt doping on the optoelectronic and photocatalytic properties of TiO2 nanoparticles. Holly along with other students has written a proposal for a program offered by the United Nations Organization and the Chrysler Corp. that involves their interaction with students from a developing nation to solve an environmental problem. If awarded she will travel to Pakistan to begin the research.


2003:
Graduate Award, Jochen Titus, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, completed his Ph.D. research program and defended his dissertation in March 2004. Jochen's research has involved the investigation of polycrystalline CuInSe2 based thin films and ways to engineer the bandgap of the material to improve solar cell performance. He is the co-author on 4 publications and has proven himself to be an excellent researcher and a scientist of high caliber.

Undergraduate Award, Gregory Hayes, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, who worked on a project involving the synthesis and characterization of doped TiO2 nanoparticles that involves some very advanced concepts of Materials Physics. Greg is co-author on a group paper published in Materials Science and Engineering B Journal. He also presented his work at a CCST Poster Presentation.


2002:
Graduate Award, Jeremy R. Balliet, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, with a Master's degree thesis from research conducted at AstroPower and supported by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory under their High Performance Photovoltaics initiative. Jeremy's project was aimed at finding inexpensive ways to produce high efficiency solar cells.

Undergraduate Award, Thomas Shipman, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, he was the Student Technical Leader for the Solar Decathlon 2002, a U.S. Department of Energy sponsored project to design and build a home powered solely by solar energy and to display the house on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.


2001:
Graduate Award, Michael Zellner, Dept. of Material Sciences and Engineering, while working toward his Ph.D. He was one of two students awarded the College of Engineering Fellowship for the Fall 2001 class. Mike's project involved research on the diffusion phenomenon of sodium in solar cells.

Undergraduate Award, Andrew Burns, Dept. of Chemistry, an Honors student with minors in Physics, Materials Science and Psychology. Andrew was also the recipient of the Eugene DuPont Memorial Scholarship and a member of the Alison Scholars Program. He presented his work on sol-gel synthesis and self-assembly of TiO2 at the MRS Fall Meeting.


2000:
Graduate Award, S. Tobias Junker, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, his thesis title is "Modeling and Control of a Co-Evaporative Physical Vapor Deposition Process for Production of Thin-Film Cu(InGa)Se2 Photovoltaic Films," based on research conducted at IEC. Toby's objective was to obtain an industrial position in process engineering.

Undergraduate Award, Ralf Jonczyk, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, his dissertation topic is "Light-trapped Thin Silicon on Ceramic Photovoltaic Devices with Integrated Back Contact." Ralf received his MSEE from the University of Delaware in May 1998.


1999:
Graduate Award, Atul Pant, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, completed his Ph. D. dissertation in March 2000 titled "Analysis and Modeling of Hot Wire Chemical Vapor Deposition of Silicon Films," based on research conducted at IEC.

Undergraduate Award, Jason B. Baxter, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, he is working on a Degree with Distinction project to construct dye-sensitized photovoltaic cells. Jason planned to continuing his education to earn a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering and has been accepted into the graduate program at five institutions.


1998:
Graduate Award, Michael G. Engelmann, Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, completed his Ph.D. dissertation in April 1999 titled "Quantitative Determination of Sulfur Incorporation in CdTe and CuInSe2 Polycrystalline Films," based on research conducted at IEC.


1997:
Graduate Award, Joseph South, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, conducted a research project jointly with AstroPower in III-V semiconductors for thermo photovoltaic devices and received his Bachelors Degree in Engineering Science from Loyola College aimed at completing his Masters thesis on adapting a sophisticated commercial semiconductor device simulation package for modeling of Ga Sb-based TPV devices.

Undergraduate Award, Brian Atkinson, Dept. of Chemical Engineering,. while working on a research project with Prof. T.W.F. Russell in the summer of 1997, he made a critical survey of the literature in dye-sensitized cells, on which he gave a special seminar that attracted an audience from local industries. His current research involves studying the growth of CuInSe2 film by reacting copper indium layers in the presence of H2S, in an effort to earn a Degree with Distinction.


1996:
Graduate Award, Steven Letendre, College of Urban Affairs and Public Policy, specializing in Energy and Environmental Policy, received his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Bryant College and his Master of Arts in Economics from the State University of New York, Binghamton. While completing his Ph.D. dissertation, where he analyzed two policy options for expanding the use of photovoltaic modules in utility markets, ending with the defense of his thesis. He developed a software package, PV Planner, which provides electric utilities and commercial customers with a tool to determine the cost and benefits of PV systems in any part of the U.S. Steve presented the results of his research at the Amer. Solar Energy Society's Annual Conference of April 1997.

Undergraduate Award, Suzanne Woods, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, with a concentration in Materials and Devices, expected to receive a Bachelor of Science degree in Spring. While working as a laboratory assistant, Suzanne performed detailed optical measurements of CIGS thin films and compared the results to spectral response measurements of devices made on the thin films. This work was presented to the Science and Engineering Scholars Program at their poster session in 1995.


1995:
Graduate Award, Yibin Bai, Dept. Electrical Engineering, received his Bachelor of Science degree in Physics and his Master of Science degree in solid state physics from Yunnan University, China. His research on silicon solar cells was accepted for presentation at the 25th Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Photovoltaic Specialists Conference.

Undergraduate Award, Roger F. Clark, Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry, has worked as a laboratory assistant at the institute and has made significant contributions to the overall research program.


1994:
Graduate Award, Matheswaran Marudachalam, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, received his Bachelor of Science in Applied Sciences from the Coimbatore Institute of Technology, Bharathiar University, India and his Masters of Engineering in Metallurgy from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. His research interests were in processing and structural characterization of thin films and the correlation of electronic and material properties to solar cell performance.

Graduate Award, Greg Norsworthy, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, received his Bachelor of Science in Materials Science from Rice University. He worked on the design of new substrate heating and cooling systems to be used in the selenization of copper/indium thin films.


1993:
Graduate Award, Sandeep Verma, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, received his Ph.D. in 1993. The research for Sandeep's thesis titled "A Chemical Reaction Engineering and Reactor Analysis for the Formation of Copper Indium Diselenide by Selenization," was conducted at IEC under the supervision of Prof. T.W.F. Russell.

Undergraduate Award, Laurie E. Adkins, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, Laurie worked at IEC under the University of Delaware Science and Engineering Scholars Program and as a summer employee. Her work at the Institute was summarized in her report "Solution Growth Deposition of Zinc Selenide."