Physics, Engineering and Materials Science Subject Dinner

Please save the date for our next Subject Dinner for Physicists, Engineers and Material Scientists, which will take place on Saturday 22 March 2025.

At this event we will celebrate the contributions of Professor Robert Taylor, who joined Queen’s as Fellow in Physics in 1990 and will retire later this year.

Tickets cost £50 per person for a 3-course dinner, including wine. Discounted tickets are available for those who matriculated in or after 2011.

Old Members can bring a guest.

B&B rooms are available in College, for the Saturday night only, at an extra charge of £50 per person. You can book this at the same time as your dinner ticket. Breakfast in Hall is included. Check in from 2pm on Saturday, check out by 10am prompt on Sunday morning.

Dress code: Lounge suits and equivalent.

Invitations will be sent in late January 2025.

Programme

15:45 Arrival and refreshments in the Shulman Auditorium Foyer
16:30 Afternoon programme: talk by Dr Matthew Wright
17:30 Time to change for dinner
18:30 Pre-dinner drinks in the Upper Library
19:00 Three-course dinner in Hall
20:30 Drinks in the Beer Cellar
23:00 Carriages

Afternoon programme

Here Comes the Sun
Using time-of-flight elastic recoil detection analysis to study high efficiency solar cells

Over the past ten years, the efficiency of silicon solar panels we see on rooftops has increased rapidly. A significant contribution to this improvement has been reducing the electrical losses occurring at the silicon surface. In this talk, I will discuss my work using an analytical technique called time-of-flight elastic recoil detection analysis (ToF-ERDA) to better characterise the surfaces in high efficiency solar cells.

Dr Matthew Wright

Dr Matthew Wright joined Queen’s as Extraordinary Junior Research Fellow in Materials in 2023. His research interests lie broadly in the field of solar energy – understanding how we can make solar cells better and how they could potentially degrade when in the field. His research career has spanned several fields within solar, his PhD dissertation studied the film composition of organic semiconductors for polymer solar cells, whilst his work over the past five years has focussed on silicon solar cells, the dominant commercial technology today.