▎HONOR

At the 8th World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion (WCPEC-8) and The International Photovoltaic Science and Engineering Conference (PVSEC-32) in Milan, Italy, it was announced that Dr. Chung-Wen Lan, Distinguished Professor of NTU’s Department of Chemical Engineering, and Prof. Armin Aberle, CEO of the Solar Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) jointly won the PVSEC Award in recognition of their long-term efforts and contributions in the field of photovoltaics.

Launched in 1984, PVSEC is one of the three major international conferences in the field of photovoltaics. The PVSEC Award is a significant award of the conference. The winner of PVSEC-31 is the renowned father of solar energy, Prof. Martin Green. Prof. Lan also hosted PVSEC-23 in Taipei in 2013.

Prof. Lan established the Taiwan Photovoltaic Industry Association and became the Director of the Photovoltaics Technology Center of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) in 2007. During his tenure as the Director of this Photovoltaics Technology Center, he worked tirelessly to promote the domestic solar photovoltaic industry. The high-performance multi-crystalline silicon (HP mc-Si), a technology based on small grains he developed with the team at Sino-American Silicon Products Inc. has made a vital impact on the global photovoltaic industry, winning him the Laudise Prize, the highest triennial honor of the International Organization of Crystal Growth (IOCG) in 2016. The bilayer Al₂O₃/SiNx passivated PERC silicon cell technology proposed by his team is also one of the most widely used structures today.

In 2021, the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials Institute (SEMI) recognized Prof. Lan’s contribution to Solar Optoelectronics in Taiwan by awarding him the first PV Taiwan Award. Prof. Lan recently shifted his research focus to energy storage materials by founding Blue Star Advanced Materials Co., Ltd., an NTU startup. In the meantime, he transferred the technology of 200 kilo SiO production technology to GIGA Solar Materials Corp., turning a new page for silicon-based anode materials in the lithium battery industry in Taiwan. Additionally, Prof. Lan assisted Taiwan Specialty Chemicals Corporation to transform a company that produces special gases since 2010, starting with the first production of disilane (Si₂H₆). With Prof. Lan’s assistance, Taiwan Specialty Chemicals Corporation was named an excellent supplier of TSMC in 2019.