Ajeet Rohatgi, Ph.D.
Photovoltaics
Georgia Institute of Technology
Recruited: 2012
A pioneer in the classroom and in business, Ajeet Rohatgi is an internationally known expert on solar cells. His work at Georgia Tech led him to create the solar cell manufacturing company Suniva, one of the fastest growing companies in Georgia, and the only American company in the Southeast that produces high-efficiency monocrystalline silicon solar cells. His work in the lab and with Suniva could make solar power competitive with fossil fuels.
Rohatgi started Georgia Tech’s research and education program in solar cells after his arrival in 1985. The center he founded became the first ever Center of Excellence in Photovoltaics Research and Education, as designated by the U.S. Department of Energy. It has worked with dozens of solar energy companies and has brought in more than $40 million in outside funding.
Research
- Modeling and fabrication of low-cost, high-efficiency silicon solar cells
- Growth and characterization of low-temperature and high-performance dielectrics
- Defects and carrier lifetime in semiconductors
- Rapid thermal processing of silicon devices
- Growth and optoelectronic properties of compound semiconductors
Choosing Georgia
Before joining the faculty at Georgia Tech, Rohatgi was a Westinghouse Fellow at the Westinghouse Research and Development Center in Pittsburgh. He saw an academic position at Georgia Tech as an opportunity to help solar energy become a practical reality.
“There are millions of people around the world who have to get by without electricity,” he told an interviewer. “I know that that can be changed – without burning fossil fuels, without endangering the planet.”
Intellectual Property
10 patents
