SDSU scientist wins bi-national research award

Assistant Professor Qiquan Qiao in South Dakota State University’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science has won a prestigious research award for young scientists.

One of several scientists in SDSU’s Center for Advanced Photovoltaics, where research focuses on new materials and new designs of devices to convert sunlight to electricity, Qiao has won the 2008 Bergmann Memorial Research Award from the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation.

Investigators eligible for a Bergmann Award are recipients of newly awarded BSF grants who earned their doctoral degrees within the past five years, are not more than 35 years old on the date of submission, and whose projects are of high scientific quality.

Qiao’s award carries a stipend of $5,000 and will run concurrently with his existing BSF grant, which funds research on organic solar cells based on novel polyselenophenes that show promise as organic semiconductors for cost effective solar energy.

The organic solar cell work comes from collaborative research between Qiquan Qiao in the United States and Michael Bendikov in Israel to create a new family of light harvesting and carrier transport materials using new, organic-based conducting polymers. The proposed novel polymers will have a great potential in advancing the organic solar technology by producing substantial improvement of light harvesting, carrier transport and solar energy conversion.

The Bergmann Award is given in memory of the late professor Ernest David Bergmann, of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, who was internationally recognized for his significant contributions to organic chemistry. He played a major role in establishing the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation in 1972 and served on its board of governors until his death in 1975. One of his special interests was to encourage young scientists.

BSF Executive Director Yair Rotstein said the Bergmann Memorial Award is intended to further enhance Qiao’s research and professional development and may be used throughout the duration of the related BSF grant. The U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation promotes scientific relations between the U.S. and Israel by supporting collaborative research projects in a wide area of basic and applied scientific fields for peaceful and non-profit purposes.

Founded in 1881, South Dakota State University is the state’s Morrill Act land-grant institution as well as its largest, most comprehensive school of higher education. SDSU confers degrees from seven different colleges representing more than 200 majors, minors and options. The institution also offers 23 master’s degree programs and 12 Ph.D. programs.

The work of the university is carried out on a residential campus in Brookings, at sites in Sioux Falls, Pierre and Rapid City, and through Cooperative Extension offices and Agricultural Experiment Station research sites across the state.