Page 86 - ISES SWC50

Dr Charles A. Bankston
Country: USA
Year Started Research/Industry: early 1970’s
Area of Research:
University: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Still Active in Research/Industry : No

Dr. Charles A. Bankston began his work in solar energy in the early 1970s while working at the Los Alamos National
Laboratory. He was a member of a team of researchers who developed the national solar energy R&D plan for the
US Department of Energy. Dr. Bankston then was assigned to DOE where he managed the solar collector R&D
program. Dr. Bankston was a member of the International Energy Agency’s Solar Heating and Cooling Program
where he represented the US on a project that advanced long duration seasonal energy storage. In the 1980’s
Dr. Bankston formed the USH2O group that supported the market expansion of solar water heating in the US.
In 1982, Dr. Bankston became the project director and editor in chief of a project that provided an assessment of
the accomplishments and lessons learned from the R&D funded by the US Department of Energy in solar heat
technologies from the early 1970s until the late 1980s. Dr. Bankston assembled a team of about 100 experts from
the government labs, universities and the private sector who reviewed about 20 years of government funder R&D
and summarized the results. He guided this review process and provided detailed technical advice to the team of
writers to assure a high-quality product. The work was then published by MIT Press in 1997 as a ten-volume series.

Dr Allen Barnett

Country: USA
Year Started Research/Industry: 1975
Area of Research: Application of advanced materials science and
technology.
University: University of Delaware
Still Active in Research/Industry : No

After selling his semiconductor company Xciton in 1975, Dr Allen Barnett joined the University of Delaware as a
Professor of Electrical Engineering. Here he undertook research on the application of advanced material science
and technology in particular specializing in thin-film materials and device design. He was Director of the Institute
of Energy Conversion at the University of Delaware from 1976 to September 1979. It was here that he pioneered
the development and manufacture of thin, crystalline silicon solar cells. In 1983 he left to become general manager
of Astropower, Division of Astrosystems. However, while at Astropower he remained a professor at the University
of Delaware He returned to University. In 2003 he returned to University of Delaware and led the US Very High
Efficiency Solar cells Project. In 2011 he joined the University of New South wales School of Photovoltaic and
Renewable Energy Engineering where he remained until 2018. He has authored or co-authored 157 technical
publications and has been awarded 13 patents. He received the IEEE William R. Cherry Award in 1996 for
outstanding contributions to Photovoltaic Science and Technology and the Karl W. Böer Solar Energy Medal of
Merit in 2004. He has also been active in many organisations such as being on the Board of Directors of the SEIA
(US)where he also been President of SEIA and Chairman of its Photovoltaics Division. From 1980 he had regularly
presented testimony to the U.S. Congress on PV programs. He also served on the National Centre for Photovoltaics
(NCPV) Advisory Board of NREL, as well as serving on conference committees and editorial boards.

68 | ISES SWC50 - The Century of Solar-Stories and Visions