Minh Tran's research in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering — conducted under the mentorship of department chair and Alstadt Lord Mark Professor Eray Aydil — has the ambitious goal of increasing silicon solar cell efficiencies beyond the Shockley-Quessier fundamental limit, a figure first calculated in 1961 that represents the maximum theoretical efficiency of a solar cell. The American Vacuum Society (AVS) awarded her its 2021 Nellie Yeoh Whetten Award, aimed at recognizing and encouraging excellence by women in graduate studies in the sciences and technologies of interest to AVS.
