Winton Cambridge-Berkeley Exchange Programme

First Winton Cambridge-Berkely Exchange Programme awards announced

The Winton Cambridge-Berkeley Exchange Programme has been established between the Winton Programme for the Physics of Sustainability and the Kavli Energy NanoSciences Institute (ENSI) (kavli.berkeley.edu) at the University of California, Berkeley to support research within the fields of these two programmes. 

The first awards have been made for Exchanges between Cambridge and Berkeley.  These involve graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and academic staff with exchanges taking place in both directions.

Lissa Eyre is a PhD student supervised by Hannah Joyce in the Department of Engineering and will join the group of James Schuck at the Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.  The aim of the project is to produce low-dimensional forms of hybrid and inorganic metal halide perovskite materials in Cambridge, and study their photophysics at the Molecular Foundry to produce high-efficiency optoelectronic devices. 

Luis Pazos is a postdoctoral researcher in the Optoelectronics group in Cambridge.  Luis in his PhD worked on novel device architectures for making efficient solar cells.  His project at Berkeley will be with Eli Yablonovitch, Department of Electrical Engineering and member of ENSI to produce a thermo-photonic device that could have applications for vaccine transport. 

Alex Chin is a Winton Advanced Research Fellow who has made significant contributions to the theory of coherence and quantum dynamics in organic and biomolecular systems, with a focus on the impact and exploitation of transient quantum effects in nanostructured light-harvesting devices.  In his exchange to Berkeley he will seek to establish new connections with the activities in this field at the ENSI, which includes the groups of Birgitta Whaley, Graham Fleming and Naomi Ginsberg. 

Birgitta Whaley is an interdisciplinary theoretical chemist at University of California, Berkeley and member of ENSI working at the interface between chemistry, quantum physics and biology.  She is one of the founders of the field of quantum biology with her research leading to significant contributions to understanding light harvesting and the role of quantum coherence in biological systems.  Her sabbatical visit to Cambridge will build links with the theoretical and experimental groups of Alex Chin and Richard Friend respectively with the goal of achieving fundamental understanding of the quantum dynamics of charge separation and stabilization in artificial solar energy harvesting systems.