Four graduate students from diverse disciplines have been named Dan David Solar Fellows through the University of California Advanced Solar Technologies Institute (UC Solar), headquartered at UC Merced.
From left to right:
Graduate students Christine Hoffman, Melissa Ricketts, Professor Roland Winston,
Bennett Widyolar and Benaz Colabewala at the 2015 UC Solar Research Symposium.
The fellowship began in 2007 through a generous gift from Sarah R. Kurtz, principal scientist in the National Center for Photovoltaics at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL). Kurtz established the fellowship in the name of the Dan David Foundation, which awarded her and NREL colleague Jerry Olson that year’s prestigious Dan David Prize for their groundbreaking work in concentrating solar power systems using multi-junction solar cells.
The Dan David Solar Fellowship, which exists in perpetuity, supports undergraduate and graduate students working in the area of solar energy and concentrating photovoltaic devices and systems. Applicants had to apply for the fellowship, and the applications were reviewed by a panel of solar energy experts. For the 2015-16 academic year, each of the four awardees will receive $2,000.
The recipients of the 2015/2016 fellowship are as follows:
- Benaz Colabewala, Physics
- Christine Hoffman, Applied Math
- Melissa Ricketts, Physics
- Bennet Widyolar, Environmental Systems
See more information about all the fellowship recipients and their current research here.
