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Meet the people behind the

EU PVSEC International Scientific Advisory Committee

ISAC

Advisory body, formed by the European Commission Joint Research Centre. Advises on developing conference strategies with the aim to address trends and developments in the photovoltaics field in order to continuously improve the scientific level and industrial orientation of the event.

Chair

Piotr Szymanski

European Commission Joint Research Centre, Director of Energy, Transport and Climate (Petten)

Piotr Szymanski hails from Warsaw, Poland. He studied physics at Warsaw University, and went on to complete a PhD in experimental particle physics at the Institute for Nuclear Studies in Swierk, Poland. He worked as a research associate at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK and the J-W Goethe University in Frankfurt/Main, Germany as well as a Staff Member at the European Organization for Particle Physics (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland. He holds a habilitation in physics and is the author or co-author of more than 200 scientific papers in various fields of particle physics. He was also Head of the Department for Interdisciplinary Applications of Physics at the Institute for Nuclear Studies in Swierk, Poland.

Dr. Szymanski was Director of Nuclear Safeguards at the European Commission in Luxembourg, which is responsible for the verification and inspection of the non-diversion of nuclear materials at all civil nuclear installations within the European Union.
Nominated JRC Director on 1 July 2016, he leads the Directorate for Energy, Transport and Climate. The Directorate brings together about 350 staff based in Petten, Ispra and Seville.


Rabia Ferroukhi

Director, Knowledge, Policy and Finance Centre, IRENA, United Arab Emirates 

Director, Knowledge, Policy and Finance Centre, IRENA, United Arab Emirates 


Paolo Frankl

Head of the Renewable Energy Division, International Energy Agency, France

Paolo Frankl is the Head of the Renewable Energy Division (RED) at the International Energy Agency (IEA), which he joined in summer 2007. In this role Dr. Frankl coordinates the Division’s activities, encompassing the status and progress of renewable energy technologies; renewable energy policies and markets; and system-integration issues. A physicist by training, Dr. Frankl holds a Ph.D in energy and environmental technologies from the University of Rome. Previous positions held were in academia and in private Italian consultancy firms researching renewable energy, life cycle assessment and eco-labeling.


Maria Getsiou

European Commission DG RTD, Brussels, Belgium

Maria GETSIOU is a senior expert in the Renewable Energy Sources Unit of the European Commission's Directorate General for Research and Innovation. Since 2008 she is responsible for the R&I policy development and the management of respective projects in the field of Photovoltaics. She has been working as a European Commission officer since 2001 on research, innovation and entrepreneurship policies. Prior to joining the EC she worked in the private sector and research institutes on high performance polymers and textiles. She holds an MSc degree in composite and polymers engineering from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium and an MSc in chemical engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.


Stefan Glunz

Head of division “Photovoltaics – Research”, Fraunhofer ISE, Freiburg, Germany

Stefan W. Glunz received the Ph.D. degree from the University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany, in 1995. He is professor for Photovoltaic Energy Conversion at the Albert-Ludwigs-University in Freiburg and the director of the division “Photovoltaics –Research” at Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, Freiburg, Germany. The research focus of the division includes the development and characterization of high-efficiency crystalline silicon, III-V, organic and perovskite solar cells. In 2008, he received the Eni Award for the promotion of science and technology in the field of renewable energies and in 2014 the Becquerel Award for Outstanding Merits in Photovoltaics.


Robert Kenny

European Commission Joint Research Centre, Directorate for Energy, Transport and Climate, Ispra, Italy

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.


Philippe Malbranche

General Director, CEA INES, France

Philippe Malbranche is currently Director of INES, the French main solar energy research institute (Institut National de l’Energie Solaire). He is also a member of the Steering Committee of the European Photovoltaic Technology and Innovation Platform and participates to the Visiting Committees of several Solar Energy research institutes.

Philippe Malbranche made engineering studies at the French Ecole Centrale de Paris, where he graduated in 1979. He began working at the South Pacific Institute for Renewable Energy in Tahiti, French Polynesia, designing and managing rural electrification projects, and providing training and technical advice for solar implementation in the South Pacific countries.

In 1989 he moved back to France at the French Ministry of Energy, as advisor on renewables and energy efficiency in transportation.

In 1991, he joined the Photowatt company, the French PV cell and module manufacturer, and three years later CEA-GENEC, a research laboratory with 25 people focused on PV systems and storage systems, which he managed until 2004. Then, he participated to the setting up of INES, which now hosts 400 researchers involved in all the value chain of solar energy and its applications in networks, buildings and transportation. His position was first Research Programme Manager.


Stefan Nowak

Managing Director of NET Nowak Energy & Technology, Switzerland

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.


Rutger Schlatmann

Head of the Solar Energy Division at
Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin,
Chairman ETIP PV

Rutger Schlatmann heads the Solar Energy Division at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin and is the founding director of its technology transfer institute PVcomB. He is also full professor for solar photovoltaics technology at the Hochschule fuer Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin. Before coming to Berlin, the Dutch physicist worked as staff scientist at Akzo Nobel and R&D manager for solar cell company HyET Solar, a joint venture between Akzo Nobel and Shell Solar before being sold to Vattenfall/Nuon.
Since 2022, he is also Chairman of the European Technology and Innovation Platform Photovoltaics, an advisory committee to the European Commission, of which he has been a member since 2014.


Wim Sinke

Program Development Manager, TNO Energy Transition, The Netherlands

Wim Sinke (1955) is Program Development Manager at TNO Energy Transition, 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.


Marko Topič

Head of Laboratory of Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics of the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

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.


Pierre Verlinden

Director at Amrock Pty Ltd, Visiting Professor at Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China

Specialities: R&D Management, High-efficiency silicon and multijunction III-V solar cells (design, fabrication, and characterization), Manufacturing of high-efficiency solar cells, IBC, Concentrator PV systems, PV system development, Design and construction of clean room, PV manufacturing line, optoelectronic and power devices

Founder, Director, Amrock Pty Ltd, 2005 – 2012
Principal Scientist, Solar Systems Pty Ltd, 2005 – 2009
Manager, Origin Energy, 2002 – 2005 Director R&D, SunPower, 1994 – 2001
Manager R&D, SunPower Corporation, 1992 – 1994
Manager Solar Cells and Applications, SunPower Corporation, 1991 – 1992
Premier Assistant - Catholic University of Louvain (UCL), Belgium, 1987 – 1991
Visiting Scholar, Stanford University, 1987
Research Assistant, Universitécatholique de Louvain, 1979 – 1987


Jonas Bergmiller

Managing Director Events, WIP Renewable Energies, Germany

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

Head of Unit Scientific Services and Cooperation, WIP Renewable Energies, Germany

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.

Organised by:

WIP Renewable Energies
Sylvensteinstr. 2
81369 Munich
Germany
Technical Programme
coordinated by:

European Commission -
Joint Research Centre
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