PROGRAMME

Nam-Gyu Park is a Lifetime Distinguished University Professor at the School of Chemical Engineering and Director of the SKKU Institute of Energy Science and Technology (SIEST), Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU). He earned his B.S. degree in chemical education in 1988, followed by M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in chemistry from Seoul National University in 1992, and 1995, respectively. Prof. Park has served as a postdoctoral researcher at ICMCB-CNRS, France, from 1996 to 1997 and at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), USA, from 1997 to 1999. Prior to his current role, Prof. Park held key positions, including director of the solar cell research center at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) from 2005 to 2009 and senior researcher at the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) from 2000 to 2005. He joined SKKU as a full professor in 2009. Prof. Park is an elected fellow of the Korean Academy of Science and Technology (KAST). His expertise lies in the field of photovoltaics, with a career spanning back to 1997. He made groundbreaking contributions by being the first to report a long-term stable perovskite solar cell in 2012, thereby initiating the research domain of perovskite photovoltaics. Acknowledging his significant impact in the scientific community, Prof. Park was honored as a Citation Laureate (top 0.01% scientist), a New Class of Nobel Prize-Worthy Scientist, in 2017, and consistently recognized in the highly cited researchers (HCR, top 1% scientists) list from 2017 to 2025 by Clarivate Analytics. Throughout his career, Prof. Park has received numerous awards, including the Scientist Award of the Month (2008), the KIST Award of the Year (2009), the Dupont Science and Technology Award (2010), the SKKU Fellowship (awarded three times in 2013, 2018, and 2021), the PVSEC Hamakawa Award (2015), the Dukmyung KAST Engineering Award (2016), the Samsung Ho-Am Prize (2018), the Rank Prize (2022, UK), the NAEK (The National Academy of Engineering of Korea) Grand Award (2024), the Korea’s Top Scientist and Technologist Award (2024), the Eni Award (2024, Italy), the Humboldt Research Award (2025, Germany) and the NIMS Award (2025, Japan). Beyond his research contributions, Prof. Park actively contributes to the scientific community as the Senior Editor of ACS Energy Letters and serves on the Editorial Advisory Board for Chem. Rev., ChemSusChem, and Solar RRL.

Since the seminal report of 9.7%-efficient, stable solid-state perovskite solar cells (PSCs) in 2012, perovskite photovoltaics have rapidly evolved into one of the most promising next-generation solar technologies. Intensive research on the optoelectronic properties of organic-inorganic lead halide perovskites has driven a remarkable rise in power conversion efficiency, with certified values now exceeding 27% in single-junction devices. Even higher efficiencies of about 35% was realized by making tandem configurations with silicon bottom cell. Achieving such performance requires precise control over precursor solution chemistry, crystallization pathways, defect passivation, and interfacial energetics. In particular, sub-stoichiometric additives and advanced interface materials play key roles in regulating film formation, suppressing non-radiative recombination, and enhancing efficiency and operational stability. More recently, the field has entered a transformative phase, marked by a shift from conventional n–i–p structures to p–i–n architectures, alongside rapid advances in perovskite tandem solar cells and substantial improvements in device durability. Despite these achievements, several critical challenges remain for large-scale commercialization, including long-term stability under real-world conditions, scalable manufacturing, materials reliability, and module integration. This talk will highlight key scientific breakthroughs driving advances in efficiency and stability, discuss emerging device architectures and materials strategies, and address the remaining barriers that must be overcome to translate perovskite photovoltaics from laboratory success to industrial deployment.

Karim Mokaddem is Head of Airbus Aircraft of Tomorrow Research and Technology. He joined Airbus in 2020 as VP Airbus Group Electrification Roadmap leader and became VP Hybrid Electric Strategy at Airbus in 2022. Karim has held a variety of engineering, project leadership and management positions since starting his career in 1996. During his 14-year tenure at PSA Peugeot Citroen, he held several high-level roles, including Executive Chief Engineer of Technoboost, a joint-venture between PSA Peugeot Citroen and the French government. In 2014, he was named General Manager of AALPS Capital, an asset management company in low-carbon, hydrogen and fuel cell mobility. Prior to joining Airbus in 2020, he was Chief Technology Officer of Balyo, a company that develops, markets and installs fully autonomous material-handling robots. Karim holds a Master of Science degree in mechanical engineering, a PhD in Physics, and a MBA from London Business School. He is the author and co-author of many technical papers and patents, and has been internationally awarded for his work.

 

Michel Talagrand is a French mathematician renowned for his profound contributions to probability theory, functional analysis, and their applications in mathematical physics and statistics. Born in 1952, Talagrand has made transformative advances in the understanding of stochastic processes and high-dimensional phenomena. He is best known for developing the modern theory of concentration of measure, which reveals how, in high-dimensional spaces or systems with many independent random variables, measurable quantities tend to concentrate sharply around their expected values. This powerful principle has become a cornerstone of modern probability and has found wide applications across mathematics, computer science, statistics, and machine learning. Among his most celebrated achievements is the completion of the mathematical foundation for the replica method in the theory of spin glasses — disordered magnetic systems first studied in physics. His rigorous proof of key predictions by Nobel laureate Giorgio Parisi in 2021 resolved long-standing challenges in the field and bridged probability theory with statistical physics. Talagrand’s groundbreaking work on the suprema of stochastic processes, generic chaining, and isoperimetric inequalities has reshaped how mathematicians approach randomness in complex systems. His results are characterized by exceptional technical depth, elegance, and broad impact. In recognition of his lifetime achievements, Michel Talagrand was awarded the 2024 Abel Prize, often described as the “Nobel Prize of Mathematics,” “for his groundbreaking contributions to probability theory and functional analysis, with outstanding applications in mathematical physics and statistics.” He is a member of the French Academy of Sciences and has received numerous other prestigious honors, including the Loève Prize (1995), the Fermat Prize (1997), and the Shaw Prize (2019). Talagrand continues to be an influential figure in contemporary mathematics, known for his deep intuition and remarkable ability to uncover hidden order in seemingly chaotic probabilistic systems. Among Talagrand's quotations: "It helps to be humble and to start by understanding fully the simple situations" "Mathematics gives you wings"