Columbia Climate School's Office of Faculty Affairs is pleased to announce Dr. Susanna Thon, Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins University, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Dr. Thon will deliver our last seminar of the academic year entitled "Renewable Energy On-Demand with Solar Nanomaterials" on Wednesday, May 28, 2025, from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. in Forum Room 301. **You must be a CUID holder to attend in person.**
To join on Zoom, RSVP here. The link will be distributed a day before the event.
Abstract: Climate change mitigation will require strategies beyond converting electricity grids to renewable sources. Humans use power in a variety of ways, and much of the world’s emissions come from off-grid power use. These forms of power use are only increasing, and, therefore, there is an urgent need for emissions-free technologies that can generate and store energy on-demand and on-the-go, where and when it is needed. This presentation will discuss emerging technologies based on multi-functional nanomaterials that take advantage of the configurable nature and quantum properties of these materials to both harvest and store renewable energy. Specifically of interest are new flexible, lightweight, high-efficiency solar technology platforms with light-collecting capabilities tailored for mobile and other off-grid applications. These technologies, combined with new manufacturing methods, electrode technology, and heat management strategies, should further allow solar power generation and storage functions to be seamlessly integrated into the monolithic systems necessary for powering transportation and mobile systems with the sun.
Bio: Susanna M. Thon is a Marshal Salant Faculty Scholar and associate professor of electrical and computer engineering. She is the associate director of the Ralph O’Connor Sustainable Energy Institute (ROSEI) and a member of the Data Science and AI Institute. She studies nanomaterials engineering for optoelectronic devices, with a focus on solar energy conversion and sensing.
Her work applies techniques from nanophotonics and scalable fabrication to produce devices and materials with novel optical and electrical functionality. Thon’s team is currently working on a number of projects, including the development of plasmonic-photocatalytic systems that use nanoparticles containing aluminum to enhance light absorption in titanium dioxide. Team members are also researching ways to use nanostructured materials, such as colloidal quantum dots and plasmonic metal nanoparticles, to build multicolored, transparent, and next-generation devices.
