EU PVSEC Executive Committee

Robert Kenny holds a Bachelor's degree in electronic engineering and a PhD for research in the field of fibre optic devices. He has been a scientific researcher at the Renewables and Energy Efficiency Unit of the Joint Research Centre in Ispra (Italy) since 2001 as part of the European Solar Test Installation, ESTI. He is working in the field of outdoor module measurement, energy rating, and characterisation and measurement issues related to novel photovoltaic technologies. He contributes to standards development within Technical Committee 82 of the IEC.

Wim Sinke (1955) is Program Development Manager at ECN Solar Energy, Petten, The Netherlands. He studied experimental physics at Utrecht University, where he graduated in 1981. He did PhD research at the FOM-Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics (AMOLF) in Amsterdam and received a doctor’s degree from Utrecht University in 1985 for a thesis entitled “New physical processes for silicon solar cells”. From 1986 to 1987 he was a visiting scientist at the Hitachi Central Research Laboratory in Tokyo, where he worked on amorphous silicon. From 1987 to 1990 he was project leader at AMOLF and was involved in crystalline silicon solar cells and fundamental properties of amorphous silicon, as well as in ion and laser processing of semiconductors. In 1990 he joined the Energy research Centre of the Netherlands ECN to set up and lead a new group on photovoltaics. This group has grown to a size of 80 people and covers a broad range of topics: wafer-based crystalline silicon, thin-film silicon, and polymer solar cells and modules, including life-cycle and economic analyses.

Wim Sinke is a part-time professor at Utrecht University on “Science and Applications of Sustainable Energy Systems” and Chairman of the European Photovoltaic Technology Platform. He has received several prestigious awards, including the Royal Dutch Shell Prize 1999 for his contributions to the science and technology of silicon and solar cells and for his role in the creation and development of the Dutch programme on R&D and implementation of photovoltaics, and the European Becquerel Prize 2011 for outstanding merits in photovoltaics.

Stefan Nowak is an experimental physicist by training and Managing Director of NET Nowak Energy & Technology Ltd., a Swiss consultancy specialized in the area of renewable energy, energy and resource efficiency. His biography is characterised by a continuous evolution from research to technology and innovation management. He has broad technological and market expertise which cover activities in communication, technology management and policy with a strong emphasis on international cooperation. Until 2017, Stefan was for many years Programme Manager of the Swiss Photovoltaic RTD Programme. Stefan is active in leading positions of European and global networks of photovoltaics. He acts as co-ordinator of the SOLAR-ERA.NET consortium, a European network of national and regional funding organisations and RTD and innovation programmes in the field of solar electricity generation, supported by the Horizon 2020 Programme. Stefan is also Swiss Alternate Delegate in the Executive Committee of the Photovoltaic Programme of the International Energy Agency (IEA PVPS TCP) – from 2001 to 2021, Stefan was chairman of this important global cooperation programme. In his different international roles, Stefan Nowak received the 2017 Becquerel Prize for outstanding merits in photovoltaics.

Professor Marko Topič is a Full Professor of Elec. Eng. at the University of Ljubljana and an Affiliated Professor at the Colorado State University. Since 2006 he is the Head of the Laboratory of Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics. Prof. Topič is a fellow of Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, senior member of IEEE and OSA, member of Slovenian Academy of Engineering and since 2014 the chairman of European Technology and Innovation Platform Photovoltaics (http://etip-pv.eu). He has co-authored 2 books and more than 180 papers in peer-reviewed journals that are cited more than 7000 times.

Dr. Verónica Bermúdez is the Senior Research Director of the Energy Center at QEERI (Qatar Environment Research Institute, part of Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) under Qatar Foundation). She is leading scientific and technological research, development and innovation at QEERI in the field of Energy, while addressing the impact of climate change and developing sustainable development solutions in a Net-Zero Carbon emissions scenario.
Prior to joining the organization in 2018, she was Acting General Manager of the Technology Division of the Atsugi Research Center at Solar Frontier KK in Japan. She has also hold a position of Expert at EDF R&D, Senior Scientist at NEXCIS (start-up) and Head of the Optoelectronic Characterization Laboratory at IRDEP (EDF) in France, between others. She is in the Advisory Board of a number of entities and provides consultancy and high level strategic technology commercialization advice to global companies and small companies alike. The impact of her research has been acknowledged by the invitation to give keynote and plenary talks at different international events, as well as with the reception of several prestigious awards, including the 2007 International Schieber Prize, the Research and Development Leader of the Year from the Women in New Energy Leadership Awards 2022, between others. She is an Associate Editor in Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy also IEEE Senior Fellow and is actively engaged in promoting science among the youth, with a focus on STEM for women.

Dr. Bermúdez is an internationally recognized expert authoring or co-authoring more than 120 scientific papers in renown journals, including Nature, Nature Energy and Science in clean and sustainable energy and in particular in photovoltaic materials and technologies in the whole value chain.  She has extensive experience in laboratory to industry technology transfer in the field photovoltaics in almost the whole value chain and in particular in materials development, devices and processes scale up, power plant operations best practices, reliability, degradation and impact of weather conditions on performance ratio. Recently she is been specialized in PV technologies and solutions for desert environment.

Eszter Voroshazi is the head of PV module process laboratory at CEA and working on the campus of INES. She has in-depth expertise in innovative material and technology development for standard and integrated PV modules, and their reliability testing. She received her Master Degree in Engineering in 2008 from INSA de Rennes in France, and her PhD degree in 2012 from KU Leuven in Belgium for her work on reliability investigation of organic photovoltaic cells. Previously, she has been R&D Manager of PV cells, modules and systems groups at IMEC in Belgium. In parallel, she has been coordinating the Photovoltaics Activity in EneryVille and serving also as Secretary of the Industrial Advisory Board. She is currently involved in ETIP-PV as expert and as organizer of Metallisation& Interconnection workshop. In the past she served as evaluator for international funding agencies (DOE, ANR, FWO) and was member of IEC standardization committee. She has published more than 100+ papers and proceedings.

Dr. Heinz Ossenbrink, has a PhD in Physics from Hahn Meitner Institute, Berlin, and joined the European Commission's Joint Research Centre in 1982. He built up the JRC's activity on Photovoltaics when Europe started its research and pilot programme for Photovoltaic systems. In 1995 he became Head of the Unit for Renewable Energy, and expanded research and support activities to Energy Efficiency and Bio-Energy, notably Biofuels. His work was dedicated to the scientific support of EU legislation for Renewable Energies and Energy Efficiency. More  recently, he developed the unit's portfolio to support Africa's efforts for a renewable energy supply.

Since 1982 he contributed to the standards work of the IEC TC82, Solar Photovoltaic Systems, in particular regarding calibration of reference cells and lifetime testing of PV modules. His many publications cover measurement and testing methods for photovoltaic generators, economic assessment of renewable energy and global environmental impacts of extended bio-fuel use.

Heinz Ossenbrink has been serving in the Scientific Committees and in Chair person functions of leading scientific conferences, such as the prestigious series of European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conferences and the European Biomass Conferences.

Jonas Bergmiller is Managing Director Events at WIP Renewables Energies. He has been working in the fields of climate action and renewable energies for over 15 years. Previously, as Marketing and Communication Manager for Green City AG, he contributed to national and international renewable energy projects in Europe. In this framework he cooperated closely with ministries, municipalities and other organizations/associations.

As International Culture Manager, Jonas Bergmiller has designed various event formats. He is experienced in the field of project management, networking and knowledge transfer. In 2008, he was awarded the Environment Prize of his home city of Munich for his engagement towards sustainability.

Jon de Gregorio holds a Master of Science in Environmental Science from UAM, Madrid; a Master of Science in Built Environment with specialization in water resources engineering from KTH, Stockholm; a Master in Renewable Energies from UNED, Spain and an Executive Master in Business Administration from Universidad Pontificia de Comillas, Madrid.

He began his career in the field of the environmental engineering consultancy in Spain, with focus on waste and water treatment, recycling and sustainability, where he was for more than 6 years coordinator and manager of various types of projects and providing technical, legal and scientific advice to internal and external stakeholders.

In 2013 he started working in WIP Renewable energies as Project Manager and as expert in communication and dissemination of R&D findings. Based on his solid technical background he is as well Scientific coordinator of the EU PVSEC Technical Programme.