Emmett Perl, Ph.D.

Emmett Perl, Ph.D. has a long and impressive work experience. Emmett began as a SURF Scholar at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in 2008 and 2009. In 2010, they were a Hollings Program Scholar at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. From 2011 to 2014, they were a PhD Student and NSF Graduate Research Fellow at the University of California, Santa Barbara. During this time, they were also a Postdoctoral Researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory where they contributed to the development of tandem solar cells with a world-record 35.5% efficiency at room-temperature and 16.4% efficiency at 400°C. Emmett wrote and tested recipes for III-V and silicon etching and developed a fabrication process to deposit tall, high-aspect ratio grid fingers with a triangular profile. From 2018 to 2019, they were a Device Development Engineer at Alta Devices where they lead dozens of MOCVD experiments to improve 1J & 2J solar cell efficiency and improved testing procedures to measure multi-junction solar cells. Emmett also wrote 9000+ lines of custom code in Igor & Python for modeling & data analysis of III-V solar cells. Finally, they were a Senior Process Development Engineer at Antora Energy from 2019 to present, where they direct TPV cell fabrication R&D efforts from epi to finished devices, owns, qualifies, and maintains several newly-installed processing tools, and coordinates processing R&D and scale-up with external industrial partners.

Emmett Perl, Ph.D. received their B.A./B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of San Diego in 2011, graduating Summa Cum Laude. Emmett then went on to pursue an M.S./Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from UC Santa Barbara, where they were a NSF Graduate Research Fellow. Emmett completed their M.S./Ph.D. in 2016.