IMSE Seminar with Robert Wexler on Sustainable Energy Technologies

As the damages associated with climate change intensify in the coming years, it will become increasingly more important for researchers to focus on sustainable energy and environmental remediation. Computational materials science has the potential to revolutionize the industries responsible for these damages by alleviating their reliance on fossil fuels and precious metals. Inspired by this potential, my research centers around solving grand challenges in energy and environment by designing next-generation technologies for solar energy conversion and developing state-of-the-art computational methods for improving the way that interfaces are currently modeled. In this talk, I will present computationally inspired strategies to improve the performance of Cu2ZnSnS4-based solar cells and metal oxide perovskites for solar thermochemical applications.

Robert Wexler is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Wexler earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania under the supervision of Prof. Andrew M. Rappe and was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Princeton University with Prof. Emily A. Carter. Dr. Wexler’s research is focused on theoretical materials innovation for renewable energy and environmental applications, with a special emphasis on the development of computational methods for the more realistic modeling of interfacial phenomena in electrocatalysis, solar energy conversion, and environmental energy harvesting. Dr. Wexler is driven by the prospects of using first principles calculations, molecular simulations, and machine learning as a synergistic approach for developing a fundamental understanding of complex materials systems, discovering relationships between their structure and function, and identifying promising routes for device optimization.