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”For the development, application and commercialization of Angle-Resolved Cathodoluminescence Imaging Spectroscopy as a new tool for optical imaging at the nanoscale, with applications in nanophotonics and materials science in general.”
Albert Polman is scientific group leader at the FOM Institute AMOLF in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where he heads the Program “Light management in new photovoltaic materials”. He is professor of Photonic materials for photovoltaics at the University of Amsterdam. Polman obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Utrecht in 1989, was post-doctoral researcher at AT&T Bell Laboratories until 1991 and then became group leader at AMOLF, where he also served as director from 2006-2013. In 2003 he spent a sabbatical year at Caltech.
Polman is one of the pioneers of the research field of nanophotonics: the control, understanding, and application of light at the nanoscale. Polman's research group specializes in fundamental studies at the interface between optical physics and materials science, and has regularly demonstrated transfer of knowledge to applied concepts.
Polman's group is the inventor of Angle-Resolved Cathodoluminescence Imaging Spectroscopy, a novel imaging technique with deep-subwavelength resolution. This technique has been commercialized by DELMIC, of which Polman is co-founder.
Polman's most recent research focuses on nanophotovoltaics, the study of light management at the nanoscale to realize solar cells with ultra-high efficiency that can be made at low costs. In 2012 he was awarded, together with Harry Atwater, the ENI Renewable Energy Award for his research on light management in photovoltaic materials.
Polman is member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), Fellow of the Materials Research Society (MRS), and recipient of an ERC Advanced Investigator Grant (2010), the Physica Prize of the Dutch Physical Society (2014) and the Julius Springer Award for Applied Physics (2014). Polman's group has published over 250 articles in international journals (h-index: 71) and has filed 12 patent applications.
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