European Becquerel Prize for Wim Sinke

Prof. Wim Sinke, senior scientist at ECN and former group leader at AMOLF, was awarded the European Becquerel Prize for Outstanding Merits in Photovoltaics during the 26th EU PVSEC conference on September 5, 2011. He received this prestigious price for his outstanding research on silicon solar cells and his leading role in the European photovoltaics community.

The Bequerel  Prize was established by the European Commission in 1989 to mark the 150th anniversary of Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel’s discovery of the photovoltaic effect in 1839, which laid the foundation of both, photovoltaics and photography.

Sinke left AMOLF with his group in 1991 and started a major (now 80 scientists) research division at the Energy Research Center of the Netherlands (ECN). Recently, AMOLF and ECN have established a new alliance to collaborate on silicon solar cells, within the new Focus Group Light Management in New Photovoltaic Materials that AMOLF is establishing.

Wim Sinke