News

Cambridge University Energy Network Annual conference 2012 on Nuclear PowerNUCLEAR POWER: CLEAR OR UNCLEAR?Sustainability, policy and prospectsTuesday, 26-06-2012Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge Nuclear power is playing an ever more fundamental role in energy strategies, providing about 15% of the world's electricity. In addition to the on-g…

Dr Nalin Patel has been appointed Manager of the Winton Programme for the Physics of Sustainability.  Nalin, who obtained his doctorate in Semiconductor Physics Group, previously worked with CDT and Toshiba Europe.  He started his post from 1 August 2011.

New Winton Pump Prime Awards GrantedA further three Winton pump prime awards have been granted to academics in the Physics department, who will be using the funds to develop new areas of research.Solar energy harvesting and light scattering on polydomain nematic elastomersThe funding obtained by Professor Mark Warner will enable Professor Martin Čo…

Researchers have been able to tune ‘coherence’ in organic nanostructures due to the surprise discovery of wavelike electrons in organic materials, revealing the key to generating ‘long-lived charges’ in organic solar cells - material that could revolutionise solar energy.By using an ultrafast camera, scientists say they have observed the very first…

Latest research finds that the trailblazing ‘perovskite’ material used in solar cells can double up as a laser, strongly suggesting the astonishing efficiency levels already achieved in these cells is only part of the journey.Commercial silicon-based solar cells - such as those seen on the roofs of houses across the country - operate at about 20% e…

Research by Winton Scholar Miloš Knežević and Professor Mark Warner, proposes a new charge pump method to convert solar energy into electricityPhotoferroelectrics are materials in which their ferroelectricity, electric polarization, can be affected by exposure to light.  The proposed device works as a charge pump based on the photoferroelectric eff…

Research by Dr Alex Chin published in Nature Physics provides insight on coherent processes in pigment-protein complexesQuantum scale photosynthesis in biological systems, which inhabit extreme environments, could hold key to new designs for solar energy and nanoscale devices.Research performed by Winton Fellow Alex Chin with collaborators from the…

Programme appoints new Scholars and FellowsThe Winton Programme has appointed the second cohort of Winton Scholars and Fellows.  The total community of Scholars and Fellows will more than double to seventeen, with the addition of seven more Scholars and two further Fellows.  Five of the Scholars have already started, details can be found on the web…

Siân Dutton and Andrew Morris will both be supervising NanoDTC students to work on mini-projects related to battery cell developmentDr Siân Dutton will be working with a NanoDTC student to evaluate candidate electrode materials for Na and Mg-ion batteries.  These alternatives to Li-ion batteries use earth abundant elements (particularly Na) and hav…

One-Day Symposium on Energy Efficiency on 1 October 2012 CLOSED for Registration The Winton Inaugural Symposium on Energy Efficiency is now CLOSED for registration.  This one-day symposium to be held on 1st October 2012 at the Cavendish will bring together world-leading experts to explore the fundamental physical limits to the generation, storage a…

Inaugural Symposium presentations availableThe Winton Inaugural Symposium was held on 1st October 2012 at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge.  This one-day meeting on "Energy Efficiency" attracted a large and diverse audience.  The attendees included students and senior staff from the Cavendish as well as other departments; there was also a sign…

A process that could revolutionise solar energy harvesting has been efficiently demonstrated in solution for the first time.Solar cells offer the opportunity to harvest abundant, renewable energy. Although the highest energy light occurs in the ultraviolet and visible spectrum, most solar energy is in the infrared.There is a trade-off in harvesting…

The first Winton Symposium will be held on the 1st October at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge.  This one day Symposium will be on “Energy Efficiency” with a number of international keynote speakers exploring the fundamental limits set by science and engineering to the efficiency with which we can generate, store and use energy.  Further detai…

Suchitra Sebastian becomes first academic staff at the Cavendish to be linked to the Winton ProgrammeSuchitra's research aims to create novel emergent phases of matter by the synthesis of new correlated materials and their study under a wide range of conditions of applied pressure, magnetic field, and electric field gradient. Her particular interes…

Latest research paves way for inexpensive, high performance cellsAt the moment, organic solar cells can achieve as much as 12 per cent efficiency in turning light into electricity, compared with 20 to 25 per cent for silicon-based cells.Now, researchers from the Universities of Cambridge and Washington have discovered that manipulating the 'spin' o…