Professor Paul Meredith

• Developing organic electronic materials and devices for neuromorphic computing (current)

  PhD

  Other supervisor: Dr James Ryan

• Advanced Dielectrics for Next Generation Electronics and Optoelectronics (current)

  PhD

  Other supervisor: Prof David Ritchie

• Disordered Photovoltaics: From Fundamentals to Application Targets (current)

  PhD

  Other supervisor: Prof David Ritchie

• Glass as an Advanced Optoelectronic Interface (current)

  PhD

  Other supervisor: Prof David Ritchie

• DESIGN OF RADICAL MATERIALS AND SYSTEMS TOWARDS OPTO-SPINTRONICS (current)

  PhD

  Other supervisor: Dr Emrys Evans

• On the Relation Between Exciton Dynamics and Nano-Morphology in Organic Semiconductor Blends (awarded 2023)

  PhD

  Other supervisor: Dr Oskar Sandberg

  Other supervisor: Dr Ardalan Armin

• Advanced Functional Coatings for Integrative Semiconductor Materials and Devices. (awarded 2023)

  PhD

  Other supervisor: Dr Gregory Burwell

  Other supervisor: Dr Ardalan Armin

  Other supervisor: Dr Matt Elwin

• The Thermodynamic Limit of Indoor Photovoltaics (awarded 2024)

  MSc

  Other supervisor: Dr Ardalan Armin

• Wide Bandgap Power Electronics Component Industrial Pilot Line 2021

  [Driving the Electric Revolution Industrialisation Centres – Wave 3 Industry Strategy Challenge Fund], £4.82M

• Strength in Places Wave 1: CS Connected - Integrating Research Excellence with our unique regional supply chain in advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing 2020 - 2025

  EPSRC Strategic Equipment, with Professor Peter Smowton (Cardiff), Dr Matt Elwin, Associate Professor Mike Jennings, Dr Wyn Mere, £45.44M

• Application Targeted Integrated Photovoltaics 2020 - 2025

  EPSRC Program Grant, with Professor James Durrant, Professor Trystan Watson, £5.9M

• Chalcogenide and Oxide MOCVD Reactor 2020 - 2022

  EPSRC Strategic Equipment, with Professor Stuart Irvine , £2.7M

• Centre for Integrative Semiconductor Materials 2019 - 2022

  Research England (UKRI) Research Partnership Investment Fund, with Dr Matt Elwin, Associate Professor Mike Jennings, Professor Owen Guy, £29.92M

• Sêr SAM – Sustainable Advanced Materials 2017 - 2022

  Sêr Cymru National Research Chair, £5.8M

• The AGL EIF Research Infrastructure Project 2013 - 2016

  [Education Investment Fund, AGL Research Infrastructure Project], $40.7M

• US-Australia Institute for Advanced PV 2013 - 2018

  [Australian Solar Institute USASEC SRI] Australian Research Council Discovery Program success rate 89% [8 from 9]; national average <20%, $2.8M

• PhD Physics & Optoelectronics, Heriot-Watt University

  1989 - 1993

• BSc Hons (1st Class) Physics with Laser Science, Swansea University

  1986 - 1989

• Sêr Cymru National Chair in Sustainable Advanced Materials, Swansea University, UK

  2017 - Present

• Professor of Materials Physics, Swansea University, UK

  2017 - Present

• Honorary Professor, School of Maths and Physics, University of Queensland, Australia

  2020 - Present

• Director UQ Solar, University of Queensland, Global Change Institute

  2013 - 2016

• ARC Discovery Outstanding Researcher Award Fellow, University of Queensland

  2014 - 2016

• Director of Research, Brisbane Materials Technology Pty Ltd

  2011 - 2016

• Professor of Physics, University of Queensland School of Mathematics and Physics

  2010 - 2016

• Vice Chancellor’s Research Fellow, University of Queensland

  2011 - 2014

• Vice President, Materials Development, XeroCoat Pty Ltd

  2008 - 2010

• Smart State Senior Fellow, University of Queensland

  2006 - 2010

• Founding Director, XeroCoat Pty Ltd

  2004 - 2006

• Lecture, Senior Lecturer, Reader in Physics, University of Queensland, Australia

  2001 - 2010

• Scientist and Senior Scientist, Proctor and Gamble, London

  1995 - 2001

• DTI Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Cambridge University Physics Department

  1993 - 1995

• Co-Director Centre for Organic Photonics and Electronics, University of Queensland

  2008 - 2016

• Honorary Professor, University of Queensland

  2017 - 2023

2022: Elected to the Fellowship of the Institute of Physics
2020: Awarded Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) [for Services to Semiconductor Materials Research and Innovation – Majesty the Queen’s 2020 Birthday Honors List]
2019: Elected to the Fellowship of the Learned Society of Wales
2017: Sêr Cymru National Research Chair: Welsh Government
2014: Australian Research Council Discovery Outstanding Researcher Award: Australian Government
2013: Premier of Queensland Award for Sustainability: Queensland Government
2009: Sustainable Energy Innovation Award: Queensland Government
2005: Foundation Research Excellence Award: University of Queensland

2021-present EPSRC Strategic Advisory Network Member
2020-present UKRI National Nuclear User Facilities Steering Board
2014-present Australian Renewable Energy Agency Technical Advisory Board
2016 Queensland Renewable Energy Target Public Enquiry Expert Panel
2014 Queensland Productivity Commission Consultation Panel on Electricity Pricing
2011-2012 Smart State Council Working Group on QLD Energy Policy
2010-2012 Premier of QLD’s Climate Change Council
2004-2006 Chair of the Australian Institute of Physics (QLD)

Citation statistics: > 270 peer reviewed publications; > 17,500 citations
Career H-index 62; 5-year H-index 47; 16 Nature and Science suite publications
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9049-7414
Books and Book Chapters: 5; Patents: 32; Conference Papers: > 220 (> 65 invited, keynote since 2015)

National and International Grant Review & Panels: Australian Research Council (IntReader – Reviewer of International Standing); EPSRC & UKRI (Various Panels & SAN); NSERC Canada; Netherlands National Research Council; US Department of Energy and US National Science Foundation; Australian Renewable Energy Agency; Horizon2020 Major Project Monitor and ERC
PhD / Research Students Currently Supervised: 5; PhD / Research Students Completed: 44

Innovation & SMEs: Founder of several start-up companies creating >50 skilled jobs in the USA and Australia; portfolio of 32 patents; >$20M in private and public commercialisation funding raised; lecturer and trainer on innovation systems and policy; mentor and advocate for innovation in universities; variously recognised for contributions to innovation.

Policy: Government Policy Development in Renewable Energy and Innovation (Australia and UK) including the formulation of the Queensland Renewable Energy Target (50% by 2030) now legislated.

Bioelectronics: Early pioneer in the emerging field of bioelectronics (interfacing of biological materials with electronics for advanced healthcare) and establishment of the principles of transducing electronic and ionic signals. Developed the first all-solid-state ion-to-electron transducer and ionic logic circuits and laid foundation principles of materials and device design [4, 8, 10, 14, 15, 18, 24, 25].

Next generation solar cells and advanced semiconductors: Multiple innovations and efficiency records in organic semiconductor, quantum dot and perovskite solar cells [3, 6, 7, 12, 13]. Significant contributions to understanding the basic physics of charge generation in advanced semiconductors including proving that organohalide perovskites are non-excitonic materials at room temperature, and more recently that mid-gap trap states define the thermodynamic efficiency in disordered semiconductors [1, 2, 5, 20, 23].

Photodetectors and sensors: Definition of the detectivity-limiting factors in organic semiconductor and organohalide perovskite photodetectors [11, 16]. Demonstration of high detectivity broad band organic and organohalide perovskite photodiodes and the first demonstration of RGB colour selective photodetection without optical filtering (i.e., illumination independent ‘retina mimicking’ photodetection) [19, 22]. Development (and commercialisation) of fluorescent-quenching sensors for stand-off detection of nitro-aromatic explosives [21].

Solar Power Engineering: Development (and commercialisation) of a module anti-reflection coating of large-scale solar photovoltaic performance improvement. Deployment of > 4MW of large-scale PV at the University of Queensland and the world’s (then) largest Li-battery + solar PV system (600kW) [17].

"A universal Urbach rule for organic semiconductors", C. Kaiser, O.J. Sandberg, N. Zarrabi, W. Li, P. Meredith & A. Armin, Nature Communications, 12, 3988 (2021).

"Direct observation of trap-assisted recombination in organic photovoltaic devices" S. Zeiske, O.J. Sandberg, N. Zarrabi, W. Li, P. Meredith & A. Armin, Nature Communications, 12, 3603 (2021).

“A History and Perspective of Non-Fullerene Electron Acceptors for Organic Solar Cells”. A. Armin, W. Li, O.J. Sandberg, Z. Xiao, L. Ding, J. Nelson, D. Neher, K. Vandewal, S. Shoaee, T. Wang, H. Ade, T. Heumüller, C. Brabec & P. Meredith, Advanced Energy Materials, 11(15), 2003570 (2021).

“Integrated bioelectronic proton-gated logic elements utilising nanoscale patterned Nafion”, J.G. Gluschke, J. Seidl, R.W. Lyttleton, K. Nguyen, M. Lagier, F. Meyer, P. Krogstrup, J. Nygård, S. Lehmann, A.B. Mostert, P. Meredith & A.P. Micolich, Materials Horizons, 8, 224 - 233 (2021).

"Charge-generating mid-gap states define the thermodynamic limit of organic photovoltaic devices", N. Zarrabi, O.J. Sandberg, S. Zeiske, W. Li, D. B. Riley, P. Meredith & A. Armin, Nature Communications, 11(1), 1-10 (2020). “Trap-mediated charge photogeneration, transport and recombination in organic solar cells: limitations set by domain purity” O.J. Sandberg, S. Zeiske, N. Zarrabi, P. Meredith & A. Armin, Physical Review Letters, 124, 128001 (2020).

"Colloidal Cs1-xFAxPbI3 quantum dots for record-efficiency, segregation-free solar cells" M. Hao, Y. Bai, S. Zeiske, L. Ren, J. Liu, Y. Yuan, N. Zarrabi, N. Cheng, M. Ghasemi, P. Chen, M. Lyu, D. He, J.H. Yun, Y. Du, Y. Wang, A. Armin, P. Meredith, G. Liu, H-M. Cheng, L. Wang, Nature Energy, 5(1), 79-88 (2020).

"Melanin biopolymers: tailoring chemical complexity for materials design", M. d'Ischia, A. Napolitano, A, Pezzella, P. Meredith, M. Buehler & P, Messersmith, Angwente Chemi International Edition, 59(28), 11196-11205 (2020).

"LED technology breaks performance barrier", P. Meredith & A. Armin, Nature, 562, 197-198 (2018).

"Macroscale biomolecular electronics and ionics", N. Amdursky, E. Glowacki & P. Meredith, Advanced Materials, 31(3), 1802221 (2018).

“Accurate characterization of next generation thin film photodetectors”, Y. Fang, A. Armin, P. Meredith & J. Huang, Nature Photonics, 13, 1-4 (2019).

“Scaling of next generation solution processed thin film solar cells”, P. Meredith & A. Armin, Nature Communications, 9:5261 (2018).

“Visualizing and suppressing interfacial recombination in high efficiency large area pin-perovskite solar cells”, M. Stolterfoht, C.M. Wolff, S. Zhang, J.A. Márquez Prieto, C.J. Hages, T. Unold, S. Albrecht, P.L. Burn, P. Meredith & D. Neher, Nature Energy, 3, 847-854 (2018).

“The photo-reactive free radical in melanin”, A.B. Mostert, S.B. Rienecker, C. Noble, G.R. Hanson & P. Meredith, Science Advances, 4(3), eaaq1293 (2018).

"An all-solid-state biocompatible ion-to-electron transducer for bioelectronics", M. Sheliakina, A.B. Mostert & P. Meredith, Materials Horizons, 5, 256-263 (2018).

“Solution-processed semiconductors for next-generation photodetectors”, F.P. García de Arquer, A. Armin, P. Meredith & E.H. Sargent, Nature Reviews Materials, 2, 16100 (2017).

"Megawatt-Scale Solar Variability Study: An Experience from a 1.2MWp Photovoltaic System in Australia over Three Years", R. Yan, T. Saha, P. Meredith, A. Ananth & M. Hossain, IET Renewable Power Generation, doi:10.1049/iet-rpg.2015.0383 (2016).

"Long-range proton conduction across free-standing serum albumin mats", N. Amdursky, X. Wang, P. Meredith, D.D.C. Bradley & M.M. Stevens, Advanced Materials, 28(14), 2692-2698 (2016).

“Filterless, narrowband RGB photodetectors”, Q. Lin, A. Armin, P.L. Burn & P. Meredith, Nature Photonics, 9, 687-694 (2015); News and Views “Optoelectronics: Colour-selective photodiodes”, M.B. Johnston, Nature Photonics, 9, 634-636 (2015).

“Electro-optics or perovskite solar cells”, Q. Lin, A. Armin, R.C.R. Nagiri, P.L. Burn & P. Meredith, Nature Photonics, 9, 106-112 (2015).

"Unambiguous detection of nitrated explosive vapours by fluorescence quenching of dendrimer films" Y. Geng, M. A. Ali, A. J. Clulow, S. Fan, P. L. Burn, I. R. Gentle, P. Meredith & P. E. Shaw, Nature Communications, 6:8240 (2015).

"Narrowband light detection via internal quantum efficiency manipulation of organic photodiodes", A. Armin, R. D. Jansen-van Vuuren, N. Kopidakis P. L. Burn & P. Meredith, Nature Communications, 6, 6343 (2015).

“Hot excitons or optical effects in organic solar cells”, A. Armin, Y. Yang, P.L. Burn, P. Meredith & A. Pivrikas, Nature Materials, 12(7), 593 (2013).
24. "Electronic and optoelectronic materials and devices inspired by nature", P Meredith, C.J. Bettinger, M. Irimia-Vladu, A.B. Mostert & P.E. Schwenn, Reports on Progress in Physics, 76, 034501 (2013).

"Is melanin a semiconductor: humidity induced self-doping and the electrical conductivity of a biopolymer", A.B. Mostert, B.J. Powell, F.L. Pratt, G.R. Hanson, T. Sarna, I.R. Gentle & P. Meredith, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, 109(23), 8943-8947 (2012).