Dr Massimo Mazzer is a Senior Researcher (“Primo Ricercatore”) of the National Research Council and Visiting Scientist at Imperial College London. He is an internationally recognised expert in photovoltaics and is co-author of more than 105 scientific publications and four patent applications.
Massimo got his “Laurea in Physics” in 1985 (110/110 cum laude) at the University of Padua with a thesis on “Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices”. After a four year research period as a trainee researcher at the CNR-MASPEC laboratory in Parma, he was awarded a post-doc “Human Capital and Mobility” grant by the European Commission to join the Materials Department of the Imperial College for a two year project on “Strained Structures of Low Dimensionality for Device Application”. During this period he gave a decisive contribution to the development of the quantum well solar cells (QWSCs) produced by the Solar Cell group lead by Prof. Keith Barnham. The output of that collaboration is the “strain-balanced” SB-QWPVs, now one of the most promising III-generation solar cells. Apart from photovoltaics and thermophotovoltaics, Massimo’s main scientific contributions have been in the field of III-V and II-VI semiconductor materials, nanostructures and devices, thermodynamics of energy conversion and electron microscopy.
After he left London in 1996, he joined the newly established CNR institute IME (Institute of Electronic Materials) in Lecce where he put together an excellent group of young researchers both theoreticians and experimentalists, who are now recognised international experts in their disciplines and in particular in the common field of thermophotovoltaics (TPV). From 1999 to 2003 he lead a Framework V European project on Thermophotovoltaics. The success of these initiatives was the main reason behind his promotion to the senior level.
At the end of 2002 he moved back to the Imperial College as a visiting scientist (partially supported by the EPSRC) to contribute to the final development stage of the SB-QWSC technology with the aim to bring it to commercial exploitation.