Dr. Ryne P. Raffaelle has been named director of the National Center for Photovoltaics at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
Raffaelle most recently served as academic director for the Golisano Institute for Sustainability and Director of the NanoPower Research Laboratory at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in New York. He has more than 20 years' experience leading laboratory research teams.
While directing the two institutions at RIT, Raffaelle also served as a professor of physics, microsystems engineering and sustainability and was responsible for more than $20 million in research grants in photovoltaics, thin-film processing and nanomaterials research. He co-founded two photovoltaics and power system start-up companies: Wakonda Technologies Inc. in 2008 and Alpha V Inc. in 2002.
His career included working as a visiting scientist at the NASA-Glenn Research Center, the NASA Lewis Research Center and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He was an associate professor of physics and space sciences at the Florida Institute of Technology from 1992-1999.
SOURCE: National Renewable Energy Laboratory
