News

Jixian Xu publishes “2D matrix engineering for homogeneous quantum dot coupling in photovoltaic solids” in Nature Nanotechnology. 

Download paper here.

We are delighted to report that our own Dr. Sasha Voznyy is to become Prof. Sasha Voznyy.

Sasha will take up a tenure-stream position at the University of Toronto (Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences, which is situated on the UofT campus situated in Scarborough) effective July 1, 2018.

Sasha competed successfully in a global search for the position in Clean Energy Chemistry.

Sasha is currently recruiting students, to find out more please see: http://cleanenergy.utoronto.ca

Congratulations to PhD student Xiwen Gong, who is among the 14 inaugural Schmidt Science Fellows. The post-doctoral fellowship, funded by the Eric Schmidt (former Google Chairman) is aimed at promoting scientific leadership and interdisciplinary research. A total of 14 fellows were selected – 8 men and 6 women, who together span 9 nationalities and are graduates of 12 different universities. 

You can read more about this in Forbes here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/anismuslimin/2018/04/24/former-google-chairman-eric-schmidt-announces-new-science-fellows/#7b66af735072

Perovskite materials for solar cell and light emission applications

Our group unites chemistry, physics, and engineering within eight experimental laboratories at the University of Toronto. Our mission is to advance the physics and chemistry of optoelectronic materials and devices, and to apply this knowledge to address key challenges in sustainable energy. Our group culture fosters win-win teamwork; prizes communication that clarifies and finds connections and new scientific avenues; and strives for excellence.

We are recruiting postdoctoral fellows in perovskite materials development and optoelectronic applications including light-emitting diodes, lasers, color converters, and solar cells.

Candidates with demonstrated expertise in experimental research (such as materials synthesis, characterization and fabrication of perovskite, silicon, organic and other semiconductor-based devices) and theory (such as density functional theory and computational materials science more broadly) are encouraged to apply. Our research is aimed at building functional devices that appreciably exceed existing performance records, such as in combined {efficiency * operating device lifetime}. The principal goal will be first-authored publications in high-impact journals; accompanied by the expectation that the candidate will devote a fraction of time to mentoring graduate students in the group and developing new research directions.

Applications should be sent by May 15, 2018, to Prof. Ted Sargent (ted.sargent@utoronto.ca) at the University of Toronto. Please list 3 referees who have confirmed that they are willing to supply letters of reference upon request.

Carbon Electrocatalytic Recycling Toronto (CERT), a team composed of researchers from the groups of Prof. Ted Sargent and Prof. David Sinton were just announced as finalists in the $20M NRG COSIA Carbon XPrize – a competition to capture and convert the most carbon dioxide into a usable valuable good. 

Team CERT has spent the last year scaling up carbon dioxide reduction reaction technologies from lab to prototype with the help of partners and contractors CO2 Solutions, Ontario Centres of Excellence, and Xerox Research Canada. CERT is 1 of 5 finalists worldwide in the natural gas stream and the only Ontario team to ever advance in an XPrize to the final round. 

You can read about the team here: http://news.engineering.utoronto.ca/cert-team-advances-to-finals-of-carbon-xprize/

CERT website: https://co2cert.com/

CERT Twitter: https://twitter.com/CO2CERT

In a ceremony at the Chinese Consulate in Toronto on April 7th, Ted Sargent congratulated four Sargent Group Winners of the 2017 Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-financed Student Abroad.

These included:

• GONG Xiwen, who also won the 2017 Extraordinary Potential Prize worth $10k USD
• LIU Mengxia
• XU Jixian
• LI Jun

 Sargent congratulated fully seven UofT students at the ceremony – UofT students won half of the awards presented at today’s ceremony. He thanked Consul General HE Wei and Education Consul ZHANG Yiqin for holding this beautiful ceremony and for celebrating the achievements of China’s brightest and most dedicated students and researchers.

Ted will be giving a special seminar, “Engineered nanomaterials and devices for light sensing, optical sources, and energy storage” at the Rowland Institute at Harvard on Friday April 13th at 12pm in Pierce 209. 

Abstract:

Innovations in materials chemistry have enabled impressive control over size, monodispersity, shape, and surface chemistry of nanoparticles, including colloidal quantum dots, reduced-dimensional perovskites, and metal nanoparticles. I will discuss advances in photodetectors and infrared cameras (including the story of InVisage

Technologies), solar cells and light emitters, and CO2 reduction electrocatalysts built using control at the nanoscale in such materials.

Mahmoud, Reza, and Mahla publish “Single-cell mRNA cytometry via sequence-specific nanoparticle clustering and trapping” in Nature Chemistry. 

Download Here. 

Congratulations to Prof. Alán Aspuru-Guzik who has recently been announced as one of 20 Canada 150 Research Chairs, announced today by Minister of Science Kirsty Duncan.

Aspuru-Guzik is a tenured professor at Harvard University, world-leading researcher in theoretical and computational chemistry and a Senior Fellow in CIFAR’s Bio-inspired Solar Energy program. He is jointly appointed to the departments of chemistry and computer science as the Canada 150 Research Chair in Theoretical & Quantum Chemistry. This summer, he will arrive at U of T, which is internationally known for its strengths in chemistry and artificial intelligence.

We are excited to welcome Alán. You can read about his story in the Globe and Mail here: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-canada-150-research-chairs-draw-scientists-fleeing-trump-guns-and/

Our recent paper in Nature linking the Sargent group and Aspuru-Guzik group on machine learning for materials discovery can be read here: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-017-07820-6