Jeff joined the Hope College faculty in 2018. He primarily teaches chemical engineering courses and has a diverse educational background in chemical engineering and chemistry.

Areas of Expertise

Jeff works on the development of the semiconductor materials which are the working component of solar cells to make solar cells more broadly accessible. These solar cell materials, and even complete solar cells, can be made through the use of simple printing and coating methods, like those used for making photographic film or printing newspaper, from “inks” which could allow for dramatically cheaper production. Jeff also works on non-traditional applications of solar cells, such as color-switching solar cells which could be integrated into building facades. 

EDUCATION

• Postdoctoral researcher, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 2015–2018
• Ph.D., chemical and biomolecular engineering, University of Notre Dame, 2015
• B.S., engineering with chemical emphasis, chemistry, Calvin College, 2010

HONORS, GRANTS & AWARDS

• Towsley Research Scholar, Hope College, 2021–25
• Research Seed Grant, Michigan Space Grant Consortium, 2020
• NREL Highest Impact Publication Award, 2019
• EERE Postdoctoral Research Award, Department of Energy, 2016
• Eli J. and Helen Shaheen Graduate School Award in Engineering, Notre Dame, 2015

Selected Publications

An asterisk * denotes a Hope undergraduate student researcher

• “Exploring Halide Perovskite Structural Tunability to Design Materials for Dynamic Photovoltaic Windows,” with *E.V. Cutlip, IEEE 47th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 2020
• “Suppressing Cation Migration in Triple-Cation Lead Halide Perovskites,” with I. M. Pavlovetc et al., ACS Energy Letters, 2020,
• “Stability in Perovskite Photovoltaics: A Paradigm for Newfangled Technologies,” with S.N. Habisreutinger, J. J. Berry and J. M. Luther, ACS Energy Letters, 2018 (cover article selected as Editor’s Choice article)
• “Quantitative and Spatially Resolved Analysis of the Performance-Bottleneck in High Efficiency, Planar Hybrid Perovskite Solar Cells,” with S. Draguta et al., Energy and Environmental Science, 2018
• “Tailored Interfaces of Unencapsulated Perovskite Solar Cells for >1000 Hours of Ambient Operational Stability,” with P. Schultz et al., Nature Energy, 2018

View a complete list of Jeff’s publications

Outside the College

Jeff and his wife, Allie, have two boys and a girl, Graham, Elliott and Clara. He enjoys running, reading, audiobooks, spending time outdoors and building Lego creations with his boys.