Two doctoral researchers in PV win the HITEC Communicator Award

The annual HITEC Symposium at Jülich brings together selected doctoral researchers from the fields of energy and climate research. In 2026, 13 doctoral researchers competed for the HITEC Communicator Award, presenting their research to an audience comprising doctoral researchers and scientists from HITEC, a graduate school for doctoral researchers at Forschungszentrum Jülich and its partner universities. In their presentations, the researchers are challenged to communicate their scientific work to a scientifically trained but non-specialist audience. The aim is to make complex scientific questions understandable and engaging beyond the boundaries of individual disciplines.

First-prize winner Hania Azzam from IET-3, who was co-supervised by researchers at IMD-3, presented her work “Better Imperfect: How defects unlock the hidden power of molecular hydrogen for silicon photovoltaics”. Her research explores how defects can be harnessed to unlock the potential of molecular hydrogen for passivation in silicon photovoltaic technologies.

Eunchi Kim from IMD-3 received the second prize. With “Reading Between the Curves: Untangling Hidden Physics from Solar Cell Data”, Kim impressed the interdisciplinary jury with an accessible and compelling explanation of complex physics in organic solar cells. Kim focused on how valuable physical insights can be extracted from solar cell data. Using a neural network to analyse measurement data, the research reveals underlying physical parameters that are not immediately visible in conventional analyses. The presentation demonstrated how multiple measurements fed into advanced data analysis can pinpoint the values of physical parameters and can help understanding the complex behaviour of solar cells from simple measurements.

Clémence Depp from ICE-3 received the third prize for “Stress is in the air: how climate change alters biogenic emissions and atmospheric chemistry”. She addressed the effects of several stresses on plants on the formation and emission of biogenic, volatile substances.

The HITEC Communicator Award values the importance of scientific communication and recognises doctoral researchers who succeed in conveying challenging research topics in a clear, engaging and interdisciplinary manner.

The top rank of the two PV-related topics are also a strong recognition of IMD-3's contribution to innovative photovoltaic research and our successful training and supervision of the next generation of scientists.

More details on the contribution by E. Kim can be found here:

Kim, E. et al., Solar RRL 9(20), e202500648 (2025) [10.1002/solr.202500648]
Inferring Material Parameters from Current–Voltage Curves in Organic Solar Cells via Neural Network‐Based Surrogate Models