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Professor Samson Jenekhe’s research in the past three and half decades has been at the interfaces of chemistry and the physics of organic/polymer semiconductors, and their applications in electronics and energy technologies. His laboratory has published about 330 peer-reviewed journal papers in these areas. Among the applications of organic semiconductors, he has explored organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) and organic photovoltaics (OPVs).

For example, OLED technology finds uses in many familiar applications in the displays in smart phones (such as iPhones) and large TVs, as well as large-area lighting. OPVs promise to substantially lower the cost of solar cells, be readily integrated into buildings, and have a much lower carbon footprint compared to current silicon photovoltaics.  

Unlike inorganic semiconductors such as silicon, in which both electron conduction and hole conduction are usually found in the same material, organic semiconductors generally tend to be either one but not both. Jenekhe’s lab studies electron-conducting organic semiconductors for OLEDs, OPVs and thin-film transistors, including chemical synthesis of new materials and establishing factors that control electron conduction in thin films.

The active layer in OPV is generally a blend of a hole-conducting polymer and an electron-conducting polymer or molecule. Jenekhe’s lab efforts on OPVs have been focused on studies of electron-conducting polymers or small molecules. In the past decade and half in particular, his lab has introduced key innovations now widely used in the field, for example: how control of the blend components and organisation can lead to high device efficiency; the concept of random copolymerization in the design and control of the crystallinity and organisation of semiconducting polymers for OPVs.

Biography

Samson A Jenekhe holds the Frank and Julie Jungers chair in engineering and professor of chemistry at the University of Washington, where he has been since 2000. He was born in Okpella, Nigeria, where he received his early education. He then attended Michigan Technological University, receiving a BS degree. He received the MS and PhD in Chemical Engineering and MA in Philosophy from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis

 Prior to his current positions, he was principal research scientist, Honeywell Inc., Corporate Technology Center, during 1984–1987, and assistant, associate and full professor of chemical engineering at the University of Rochester during 1988–2000. Jenekhe’s research contributions have been in the chemistry, physics and engineering applications of organic/polymer semiconductors, including materials synthesis, photophysics, charge transport, organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), organic electronics and photovoltaic properties.

He is the co-author of over 328 research articles in journals and 28 US patents. Over 50 graduate students, 25 postdoctoral scholars and 80 undergraduates have received research training in his laboratory. Jenekhe was awarded the Charles M. A. Stine Award for Excellence in Materials Science and Engineering by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers in 2014.

For his pioneering research on the photophysics and charge transport properties of semiconducting polymers, he received the 2021 Polymer Physics Prize from the American Physical Society. Jenekhe is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the ¾ÅÖÝÓ°Ôº (UK).

A career in chemistry, or more generally the chemical sciences, provides many opportunities for addressing many of the challenges society faces in the coming decades, from diseases to climate change.

Professor Samson A Jenekhe