Stuart Wenham (1957,
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
– 23 December 2017) was, at the time of his death, the director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Advanced Silicon Photovoltaics and Photonics and Director of Academic Studies of the
School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering
The Faculty of Engineering is a constituent body of the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia. UNSW was formed on 1 July 1949, and the Faculty was established on 8 May 1950 with the inaugural meeting of the Faculty taking place on 7 ...
at the
University of New South Wales
The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...
.
Early life
Wenham grew up in Bexley North, a suburb of Sydney. On his graduation from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in 1981, he received the university medal in electrical engineering.
Solar power
With Dr Bruce Godfrey of UNSW, Wenham set up Australia's first solar cell manufacturing line. He invented advanced hydrogenation technology which boosted the efficiency of solar cells one hundredfold, a major contribution to the well-being of the planet and for which colleagues considered him "the Einstein of the solar world".
Wenham played a key role in commercialising the advanced hydrogenation technology, forging strong industry collaborations to ensure ongoing support for the advanced hydrogenation and related projects at the UNSW School of Photovoltaics and Renewable Energy (SPREE). He was also the Chief Technology Officer of
Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd, at one time the world's leading supplier of solar cells.
Recognition
Wenham's pioneering work with
Professor Martin Green on
solar cell
A solar cell, or photovoltaic cell, is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect, which is a physical and chemical phenomenon. technology won them the 1999
Australia Prize after they had held the record for solar
energy conversion efficiency
Energy conversion efficiency (''η'') is the ratio between the useful output of an energy conversion machine and the input, in energy terms. The input, as well as the useful output may be chemical, electric power, mechanical work, light (radia ...
for decades.
In 2008, Wenham was awarded the
Clunies Ross Award for "contributions to solar cell development and commercialisation". In 2009 Wenham received the Cherry Award at the 34th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference in Philadelphia.
"2010 William R. Cherry Award Previous Recipients"
(Retrieved 02 February 2020) In 2011 he received the J J Ebers Award
The J. J. Ebers Award was established in 1971 to foster progress in electron devices. It commemorates Jewell James Ebers, whose contributions, particularly to transistors, shaped the understanding and technology of electron devices. It is present ...
from the International Electron Devices group of the IEEE
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...
. Wenham was awarded the UK Institution of Engineering and Technology's AF Harvey Engineering prize in 2013 for his breakthroughs in hydrogenation.
References
External links
Stuart Wenham at UNSW School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering
1957 births
2017 deaths
Scientists from Sydney
Australia Prize recipients
Chief technology officers
Deaths from melanoma
Deaths from cancer in New South Wales
Fellows of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering
{{australia-academic-bio-stub