Our People
The Printable Photovoltaics Team at CSIRO Manufacturing in Clayton.
Dr Mei Gao
- Dr Gao’s research interests cover several fields, including small molecule and polymer synthesis, surface modification for ophthalmic materials, and design and fabrication of high sensitive biosensors based on aligned carbon nanotube arrays and other nanomaterials. Dr Gao has worked in several industrial projects since she joined CSIRO. Her current focus is the development of low cost, lightweight, organic photovoltaics (OPV) and perovskite solar cells, responsible to lead, design, develop, characterise, and fabricate thin-film solar cells for achieving facile, solution processible, reproducible, and printable high-performance devices.
Dr Anthony Chesman
- Dr Chesman completed his PhD in inorganic chemistry and crystallography at Monash University School of Chemistry in 2010. He joined CSIRO as an OCE Postdoctoral Research Fellow, and later held an ARC DECRA Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, working on projects aimed at the scaled-up synthesis of earth-abundant nanoparticles for use in non-toxic photovoltaic devices. His current research focuses on spectroscopic characterisation of emerging optoelectronic materials, scaled fabrication of printed solar cells, and application of nitrogen vacancy (NV) diamond-based quantum sensors to materials characterisation. He has previously been a Partner Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science and a MCN Tech Ambassador at the Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication (MCN). Apart from leading CSIRO's Renewable Energy Systems Research Group, Dr Chesman is also a Node Leader (CSIRO Manufacturing) and Work Package Leader (Emerging Materials) in the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics (ACAP).
Dr Doojin Vak
- Dr Doojin Vak completed his PhD on organic semiconductors for optoelectronic applications such as OLEDs at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), Korea. He then spent 2 years on the development of organic electronic devices such as organic photovoltaics, organic transistors and OLEDs in the Heeger Center for Advanced Materials (HCAM) at GIST. In 2007 he moved to Australia and joined the University of Melbourne as a postdoctoral researcher where he started working on printing technologies for organic solar cells as a key researcher in the Victorian Organic Solar Consortium (VICOSC). Since joining CSIRO as a research scientist in 2010 he has continued research into fabrication of solar cells using various industrial printing techniques and has demonstrated record-breaking efficiencies for roll-to-roll printed solar cells. He is currently working on digital-tech-assisted research methods for organic-based and perovskite-based solar cell technologies.
Dr Andrew Scully
- Andrew completed his PhD in the Physical Chemistry Dept at the University of Melbourne, and subsequently held postdoctoral positions at Kyoto Institute of Technology, University of Melbourne, and Imperial College London/Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. In these projects he utilised ultrafast laser spectroscopy to study UV stabilisation of polymers, new photodynamic therapy agents, and the effects of diffusion on the kinetics of fast chemical reactions. At CSIRO he has led industry projects on novel opto/photo-active packaging technologies, biopolymer composites, optical features for product security, and optoelectronic devices. His current research includes photophysical and optoelectronic characterisation of printed solar cells, device encapsulation, and durability for terrestrial and space applications.
Dr Dechan Angmo
- Dr Dechan Angmo has expertise in a wide range of upscaling printing and coating methods for solution-processed solar cells. Her research interests encompass materials, device architecture, processing, and stability evaluation aiming at scalable, low-cost and high throughput manufacturing of solar cells via vacuum-free printing and coating methods. She is currently working on developing robust processes for the upscaling of perovskite solar cells. After completing her PhD in 2014, Dechan held a short-term post-doctoral position at the Technical University of Denmark where she continued her research on organic photovoltaics (OPV). She co-founded an OPV start-up company in 2014 (InfinityPV ApS) which she left to pursue her love for research. Dr Angmo has contributed to more than 40 peer-reviewed scientific papers and 4 book chapters.
Dr Christopher Dunn
- During his 15 years at CSIRO Chris has worked on organic electroactive materials for applications in transistors (OFET), lighting (OLED), and photovoltaics (OPV). His major current activity is to demonstrate and fast-track scaled-up printing processes for perovskite solar cells leading to their production and market uptake. For this he is using a Coatema Click&Coat™ print line recently installed in a purpose-built ISO-8 cleanroom facility at CSIRO, funded jointly by CSIRO and ACAP. Prior to joining CSIRO, Chris spent 9 years in his native UK as a Research Scientist at a leading industrial chemicals and materials supplier working on the development, scale-up and characterisation of materials for electrical and optical applications in Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs), following on from his PhD and postdoctoral work. He has a long-standing interest in the self-organising properties of materials and the consequences this has for their structure, functions and properties.
Dr Jueng-Eun Kim
- Jueng-Eun Kim received her MSc and PhD degrees supervised by Prof. Dong-Yu Kim at the School of Materials Science and Technology, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), Korea. Her research focused on organic-inorganic hybrid solar cells, device processing with slot-die printing, and upscaling solar cell devices. In 2019 she commenced an ARENA-funded postdoctoral position with Prof. Jacek Jasieniak at Monash University researching roll-to-roll printed perovskite solar cells in collaboration with CSIRO. Since joining CSIRO in 2022, she has focused on developing roll-to-roll processes for manufacturing lightweight, flexible, and highly efficient perovskite solar cells for satellites and other space applications.
Dr Luke Sutherland
- Luke joined the Printable Photovoltaics Team as a co-supervised PhD student in 2020. He holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from RMIT University, and completed his PhD in the Materials Science and Engineering Dept at Monash University in 2023. He also spent time in industry, completing an internship with Siemens in Mulheim, Germany. Luke's area of expertise is fabricating perovskite solar cells using roll-to-roll techniques for scaled-up manufacture and encapsulation, and replacing expensive gold electrodes with carbon-based alternatives
Dr Narendra Pai
- Narendra received his PhD from the School of Chemistry at Monash University under the supervision of Dr Alexander Simonov and the late Prof. Leone Spiccia, focusing on developing novel lead-free perovskite materials for optoelectronic applications. He has also conducted research on photoanodes for dye-sensitized solar cells and self-balancing robots, and prior to pursuing his research interests in solar cells was as an Application and Service Engineer at Hysitron. As an ACAP Postdoctoral Fellow Narendra studied novel low-toxicity perovskite formulations for photovoltaics, and is now enthusiastically developing thermally stable perovskite formulations for scalable solar cells.
Ms Regine Chantler
- Régine began her career as a design engineer, developing power MOSFETs for a global semiconductor manufacturer near Manchester, UK. In this dynamic R&D environment, she gained valuable experience in project management and product development. For over 10 years, she managed the Flexible Electronics Laboratory, a complex experimental facility, overseeing its operations and logistics. Notably, she led a CRC-P industry project that developed printed solar panels for building integration.
Régine is the project leader for CSIRO’s contribution to the ARENA-funded Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics (ACAP). With a background in electronics engineering, Régine is passionate about electronics design and actively contributes to prototyping and scale-up printable photovoltaic technology.
She also leads the Automation & Sensing team at CSIRO Manufacturing, which supports scientific breakthroughs with engineering, software and prototyping expertise.
Régine received her Diplôme d'Ingénieur from INPG (Phelma) in Grenoble, France, and her MSc from Heriot Watt University, UK with her academic journey also taking her to Mexico. She speaks French, English, Spanish, and Créole in her hometown of Martinique.
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