Curriculum Vitae of Professor Michael Grtzel

Education
Habilitation and venia legendi in Physical Chemistry, Free University of Berlin (1976)
Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry, 1971 (summa cum laude), Technical University of Berlin
Diploma degree in Chemistry, 1968 (summa cum laude), Free University of Berlin
Positions held
Full Professor, Director of the Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces, Faculty of Basic
Science, Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne (EPFL) 1981-present.
Head, Chemistry Department, 1991-1993, 1983-1985.
Director of the Institute of Physical Chemistry, 1998-2000, 1980- 1982,
Associated Professor of Physical Chemistry ,EPFL 1977-1981.
Senior Staff Scientist, Hahn-Meitner Institute Berlin, 1974 -1976.
Lecturer, Photochemistry and Physical Chemistry, Free University of Berlin, 1975-1976.
PRF Post Doctoral Fellow, University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA, 1972 -1974.
Research Associate, Hahn Meitner Institute Berlin, Germany, 1969-1972.
Awards and Academic Distinctions
2009 Balzan Prize
2009 Dr. Honoris Causa , Hasselt University Belgium.
2009 Galvani Medal of the Italian Chemical Society.
2008 Harvey Prize in Science and Technology , The Technion Haifa, Israel
2007 First International Prize, Japan Society of Coordination Chemistry
2007 Dr. Honoris Causa Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
2007 Kroll endowed Chair, University of Cornell, Itaca,USA, offered.
2006 World Technology Award in Materials. San Francisco, USA.
2005 Gerischer prize of the Electrochemical Society
2005 Winner, Scientific American Top 50, ranked amongst 50 leading scientists worldwide
2004 Laurea honoris causa, University of Turin (600 Anniversary award).
2003 ENI-Italgas Price in Science and Environment
2002 IBC International Award in Supramolecular Chemistry and Technology
2002 and 1998 Venture 2002 McKinsey Award, Zurich, Switzerland
2001 Havinga Lecture, Award and Medal, Leiden, The Netherlands
2001 Faraday Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry, United Kingdom
2000, Grand European Price of Innovation
1998 Eurel Price of the European Society of Electrical Engineers
1997 Calveras Award in Photovoltaics, Denver USA
1996 Dr.honoris causa, Faculty of Science, University of Uppsala, Sweden.
1985 R.A. Plane endowed Chair,Clarkson University, Potsdam USA, offered.
1984 Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science Fellow, Tokyo, Japan
1981 Chair of Physical Chemistry, Free University, Berlin offered
1966 Fellow, Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes (top first percentile of all students).
Honorary Named Lectureships
2009 Confrence Jean Perrin, Paris, France.
2009 John C. Bailar Lectures and Medal , University of Illinois ,Urbana ,USA
2008 The 18th Brdicka Lecture, Karls University Prague
2008 The AD Little lectures, MIT Boston, USA.
2008 Lecture at the Leading Edge, University of Toronto, Canada

2008 The Earl L. Muetterties Memorial Lecturer ,University of California at Berkeley,

2007 The William Lloyd Evans Lectures and Award Ohio State University.
2007 The 6th Distinguished Gouq-Jen Su lecturer, University of Rochester.
2006 Rohm&Haas Speaker, hosted by Stanford University Graduate Students
2006 The Arthur Birch Lecturer, Australian National University, Canberra
2006 The Cady Lecturer, University of Washington, Seattle, USA
2006 The Johnson Lecturer, Cornell University, Ithaca,NY, USA
2004 The Weissberger Williams Distinguished Scientist Lecturer, Kodak Rochester USA
2003 The Dupont Centennial Lecturer, Dupont Wilmington, Delaware, USA.
1999 The Weissberger Williams Distinguished Scientist Lecturer, Kodak Rochester USA
1995 The Debye Lecturer, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
1993 Chemistry Society Inaugural Lecturer , Dublin, Ireland
1982 Honorary Lecturer, University of Texas, Austin, Texas,
1981 GOP Invited Lecturer, Des Plaines, Illinois, USA
Invited Professorships and Guest Scientist Appointments
2007/2008 Mary Upson Visiting Professor, University of Cornell Ithaca N.Y. USA
2006-2009 Distinguished Invited Professor National University of Singapore.
2003-2006 Honorary part time Chemistry Chair, Delft University of Technology,
2003, Fellow, Hanse Scientific College, Bremen, Germany
1998, 1997, 1995, 1986 and 1981 invited Guest Scientist, NREL, Golden, Colorado USA
1993, Invited Professor, Ecole Nationale Suprieure de Cachan (Paris), France
1988, Invited Professor, University of California at Berkeley, USA.
Professional Assignments, Editorial Boards, Professional Society Memberships
Scientific and Academic Advisory Committee, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel (2006)
UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPRC) Review College (2003-).
Evaluation Board of the NIMC Institute, Tsukuba, Japan (1999-2006).
Invited panelist, US Department of Energy Council on Chemical Science, 2005 and 1997.
Expert witness for the Royal Court of Justice London (2002-2004).
Scientific Committee of the French CNRS, expert for evaluating the Physical Chemistry
Laboratory of the University of Paris (URA 75) and the Institute of Electrochemistry of the
University of Grenoble, France.
Evaluation Board of Photovoltaic Research, Helmholtz Foundation, Gerrmany 1998.
Evaluation Board, Volkswagenstiftung, Germany (1997-2003).
Member of the Swiss Chemical Society and the European Academy of Science.
Honorary member Socit Vaudoise de Sciences Naturelles.
Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC).
Memberships of Editorial Boards of International Journals
Advanced Functional Materials Springer
Renewable &Sustainable Energy Reviews (Elsevier),
International Journal of Nanotechnology
Nanostructured Materials (Elsevier),
Chemistry of Materials (American Chemical Society),
Journal of Materials Chemistry RSC Publishing
Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells (Elsevier),
Progress in Photovoltaic Science and Technology.
Chem.Phys.Chem.(Wiley-VCh),
ChemSusChem, Wiley-VCH,

Journal of Molecular Catalysis (Elsevier),

Langmuir (American Chemical Society),
Handbook of Nanostructured Materials and Nanotechnology (Academic Press),
Advances in Photochemistry and Photophysics (CRC), Chemical Physics Letters.
Topical Editor, New Journal of Chemistry (Paris, France), special issue on Fractals in
Chemistry, 1989, (together with Prof. J. Weber, Geneva)

Scientific Achievements and Leadership Profile

Professor at the Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne where he directs the laboratory of
photonics and interfaces, Michael Graetzel pioneered studies of electron and energy transfer
reactions in mesoscopic systems, a field where he has an outstanding track record and has
maintained leadership on the global scale through the years. Graetzels infatuation with the
mesoscopic dimension started early on in his carrier. Investigating photo-induced energy and
electron transfer reactions in micellar systems, he discovered the unique quenching kinetics of
solubilized fluorophores and used the local electrostatic field present at the micellar surface to
control the dynamics of photo induced electron transfer reactions.
Attracted by finely divided photoactive inorganic materials that could be used in solar
energy conversion, he was the first to produce nanocrystalline semiconductors and to study
light induced charge carrier reactions in these systems by time resolved laser photolysis. He
also discovered that metal oxide nano-particles such as RuO2 act as very effective redox
catalysts promoting the oxidation of water to oxygen in analogy to the water splitting enzyme
in photo-system II of green plants. One of his key findings during this period was that
nanocrystalline wide band gap oxide particles, such as colloidal TiO2, can be very effectively
sensitized to visible light by covering them with a monolayer of a ruthenium dye endowed
with appropriate anchoring groups. He noticed that the rate of photo-induced electron
injection from the excited state of the sensitizer into the conduction band of the oxide
nanoparticle was found to be many orders of magnitude faster than the dark back reaction, i.e.
the recapture of the electron by the oxidized dye. This later turned out to be of crucial
importance for his success in developing mesoscopic solar cells.
His fundamental studies laid also the ground for the development of semiconductor
quantum dots showing size quantization effects in their absorption and emission properties.
Research in this field was soon booming and continues to attract enormous attention by
scientists from physics, chemistry and material science alike.
Graetzel's research on nanocrystaline semiconductors in the eighties laid the basis for
the invention of the mesoscopic solar cells which he announced in a land mark paper in
Nature in year 1991. According to the ISI Web of Science index from March 23, 2009, this
paper has been cited 4380 times since then, the number of citations growing every year
reaching 705 in 2008 alone. The enormous attention that has been paid to this discovery is
explained by the fact that the solar cell described in the Nature paper presented an entirely
new paradigm in photovoltaic technology: Mesoscopic solar cells.
Mesoscopic solar cells, where the electron and hole conducting material form an
interpenetrating network in contrast to conventional p-n solar cells which employ flat
junctions, are presently being investigated worldwide by a very large number of scientists.
The prototype of this new photovoltaic family is the dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC), named
"Graetzel cell" after its inventor, which employs dye molecules or semiconductor quantum
dots to sensitize a nanocrystalline wide band gap semiconductor film. His revolutionary
approach has allowed for the first time to reach very high efficiencies in a photovoltaic
conversion process that separates solar light harvesting and charge carrier transport. It is the
only photovoltaic cell that uses a molecular sensitizer to absorb light and generate charge

carriers. In this fashion it mimics successfully the process that the green plants and algae use
in natural photosynthesis.
Through his highly innovative and painstaking research Professor Graetzel has
maintained a leading position in the domain of mesoscopic solar cells since the inception of
the new solar cells in 1991. His group conceived and molecularly engineered transition metal
sensitizers showing panchromatic light absorption and very high quantum yields of charge
carrier generation. Performing in depth kinetic studies, he discovered that the electron
injection from the excited sensitizer into the conduction band of titanium dioxide occurs on a
femtosecond time scale, involving often vibrationally hot states, while the electron back
reaction takes place at a much slower rate. He also found that rapid cross-surface charge
transport can occur within the self -assembled mono-layers of surface adsorbed dye
molecules. These striking findings have stimulated extensive theoretical and experimental
investigations of such ultra-fast interfacial electron transfer reactions. Using time resolved
DFT theory, Graetzel and colleagues have performed theoretical studies to provide a rationale
for the unique light absorption and ultrafast charge separation features of the sensitizer
molecules. Due to their excellent stability and unmatched performance these ruthenium
complexes remain the state of the art sensitizers in todays mesoscopic injection solar cells.
Meanwhile Graetzels group continues to develop new organic dyes that show near infrared
response enhancing the efficiency of power generation from sunlight by these molecular
photovoltaic systems. Graetzel also pioneered the use of organic hole conductors and ionic
liquids to replace the redox electrolytes in the DSSC which were initially based on volatile
solvents. His publications on the solid state hole conductor cell (Nature 1998) and a
fundamental paper on new hydrophobic ionic liquids displaying low viscosity (Inorganic
Chemistry 1996) have been cited 958 and 1657 times respectively, revealing the large impact
of his work. The new hydrophobic low viscosity ionic liquids that his team discovered have
found widespread applications and are produced commercially. The breakthroughs made by
his team in this area have dramatically increased the stability of the dye sensitized solar cells
under prolonged light soaking or heat stress fostering their practical development for outside
use.
During his fundamental studies of charge transfer reactions in mesoscopic systems,
Graetzel discovered that a rapid cross surface charge transport can take place in self
assembled monomolecular layers of redox active molecules which are adsorbed at the surface
of electrically insulating materials. This intriguing surface conduction process which occurs
by charge percolation via hopping between adjacent electro-active molecules within the
monolayer has meanwhile been exploited for molecular wiring of insulator nanocrystals and
redox targeting of lithium ion battery cathode materials having very low electronic
conductivity.
His pioneering work on nanocrystalline junctions prompted important new discoveries
in areas well beyond the solar cell field. Thus, Graetzel was the first to employ
nanocrystalline materials in rechargeable batteries which lead to the realization of high power
lithium ion batteries based on cathode materials such as LiMnPO4 that exhibit extremely
lithium insertion and release. Thus, he was the first to employ nanocrystalline materials to
realize high power lithium ion batteries and to develop new electrochromic and
electroluminescent displays as well as biosensors. Finally, Graetzel has made groundbreaking discoveries in the field of solar production of hydrogen. His recent work on water
photolysis using mesocopic iron oxide films sets a new benchmark in this important field of
fuel generation from sunlight.
Graetzels work has had an enormous scientific impact. His ca 750 publications have
been cited over 52000 times so far, his h-factor being 109. This ranks him among the top
twenty most cited chemists in the world. The number of his citations has been growing almost

exponentially during the last ten years reaching over 6600 for year 2008 alone as shown in the
figure below. The practical impact of his solar cell inventions is illustrated by the recent
launch of the industrial production of his solar cells in Cardiff, Wales (UK) on a 120
Megawatt per year scale.

Yearly citations of Graetzel's publications (sourec ISI-Web of Science from March, 2009)
Graetzel was fortunate to be assisted in his efforts by many excellent coworkers.He
supervised more than 40 graduate students. Hs former students and postdocs have undertaken
meanwhile successful careers in academia and industry or government laboratories. He is
proud of their accomplishments many having continued their research in the solar cell area
and have themselves created very active and highly respected research teams. Graetzel is also
active in disseminating his experience and knowledge to the the young generation by
teaching high school students how to make their own DSSC using natural dyes extracted from
berries. His former coworker Greg Smestad offers educational kits for the public
(www.solideas.com), which have been widely acclaimed.

Publication Track Record for the last 10 years

1. Ten Most Cited Publications in peer reviewed journals during the last ten years
(number of citations without self citations shown in parenthesis after the year)
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5
1.6
1.7
1.8
1.9

Photo-electrochemical cells Nature 2001 (1090)

Solid state dye sensitized mesoporous TiO2 solar cells , Nature 1998 (871).
Molecular photovoltaics, Acc. Chemical Research 2000 (801).
Engineering of panchromatic sensitizers, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2001 (503).
A quasi-solid state dye-sensitized solar cell, Nature Materials 2003 (258).
Gelation of ionic liquids-based lectrolytes with silica J.Am.Chem. Soc. 2003 (233)
Solar Energy Conversion by Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Inorg. Chem. 2005 (203)
Parameters influencing charge recombination kinetics J. Phys. Chem. B 2000 (176).
DFT-TDDFTcomputational study J. Am. Chem.Soc. 2005 (172)

1.10 High-performance solar cells based on eutectic melts Nature Materials 2008 (8)
2. Publications of Research Monographs and Chapters in Collective Volumes
2.1 Light Energy Conversion and Storage: Principles Applications.
Wiley Interscience Volume 3, 2009 Book senies edited by G. Schmid.
2.2 Transition metal complexes for Photovoltaics and LEDs, Yum, V. ed., Structure and
Bonding, 2007.
2.3 Solar energy conversion, Balzani, ed. ,Electron transfer in chemistry, Wiley, 2001
2.4 Conversion of Solar Energy using Dye-Sensitization, Ward, M. ed.
Comprehensive Coordination Chemistry, 2004.
2.5.Mesoscopic Solar cels , Leite, E.R. ed, Nanostructured Materials,,Springer , 2009.
2.5 Dye Sensitized Solar Cells , Yanagida ed., J. Photochem Photobiol, special issue
Elsevier , 2003.
2.7 Inorg. Chimica Acta vol. 361, issue 3, p561-806 (2008) Protagonists in Chemistry
Michael Graetzel, special issue in honor of Prof. Michael Grtzel, published in 2008.
3. Granted Patents
3.1 Photocatalytic Film for the Cleavage of Water into...

US 7,271334 B2 2007

3.2 Solid State Heterojunction and Solid State Sensitized...

US 7,042,029 B2 2006

3.3 Tandem Cell for Water Cleavage by Visible Light

US 6,936,143 B1 2005

3.4 Metal Complex Photosensitizer and Photovoltaic Cell

US 6,245,988 B1 2001

3.5 Process for Manufacturing an Electrode for an

US 6,024,807 2000