Professor Henry Snaith

Henry Snaith is a physicist working on new materials and devices for photovoltaic solar energy conversion. His multidisciplinary work spans activities from new materials discovery and synthesis, through device optimization to fundamental spectroscopic and theoretical investigations. Henry Snaith discovered that a new type of solar cell material, namely metal halide perovskites, can produce extremely efficient solar cells when processed as a solid thin-film and “sandwiched” between two charge selective electrodes. By combining perovskites with silicon, in so-called “tandem cells” he has demonstrated efficiencies far beyond what is possible with existing commercial PV technologies, and promises to deliver the next generation of improved PV for powering the world towards net zero. Perovskites are based on earth abundant materials which are also very easy and cheap to manufacture. Henry Snaith is intimately involved in the commercialization of this technology, as co-founder and Chief Scientific Offer of Oxford PV ltd. Oxford PV has ramped up production on the first full-scale production line based on his perovskite technology. Henry Snaith was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society at the age of 37, for “starting a new field of research attracting both academic and industrial following”. He has also won numerous awards and accolades, including the Leigh Ann Conn Prize for Renewable Energy, The Becquerel Prize in Photovoltaics, the Blavatnik Award for Young Scientist, being named one of “Natures Ten” people who mattered in 2013 and topping the rank of the world’s “most influential scientific minds”, as judged by Clarivate Analytical.