Wole Soboyejo Colloquium

Wole Soboyejo will give a virtual colloquium on 16 July 2020 titled New Frontiers for Physics in Africa: From Solar Cells and Light Emitting Devices to Medical Physics. The talk, which is organized by ICTP's partner institute in Rwanda, the ICTP-East African Institute for Fundamental Research, will take place starting at 16:00 GMT+2. Preregistration is required at the following address:

https:/ /zoom.us/webinar/register/W N_y5Uch__SRw6vdZxoT1eSng

The talk also will be livestreamed on ICTP's YouTube channel.

Download the poster.

Soboyejo will present some new frontiers for physics in Africa, with a focus on African challenges in health, energy and the environment. In the first part of the talk, he will explore the development of the next generation of low cost perovskite solar cells and light emitting devices that are produced using a pressure-assisted fabrication technique that results in solar cells with photoconversion efficiencies of about 23.5% (close to the world record for perovskite solar cells). The high efficiencies of these solar cells are explained by considering the combined effects of charge transport across layers and interfaces in these devices. The implications of the results are then discussed for the development of the next generation of solar cells and light emitting devices.

In the second part of his talk, Soboyejo will explore the development of the next generation of nanotechnology and robotics for the detection and treatment of disease. These include nanoparticles and targeted drugs for the detection and treatment of cancer, and medical robotics for the detection of covid-19.  He will use specific examples to illustrate the opportunities for African physicists to be part of the development of magnetic/gold nanoparticles and biomedical devices for the detection and treatment of breast, prostate and cervical cancer.

The talk will conclude with an overview of the role that physicists can play in the development of robotically-guided probes for the detection of covid-19. 

Wole Soboyejo is a materials scientist whose research focuses on the mechanical properties of materials, biomaterials, the use of materials for the detection and treatment of diseases, and the use of materials science to promote global development. He has a PhD from Cambridge University, and was a professor at Princeton University until 2016. He has published more than 400 papers, and served as President and Provost of the African University of Science and Technology (AUST) in Abuja, Nigeria. Soboyejo was the Bernard M. Gordon Dean of Engineering and Professor of Engineering Leadership at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), USA and is currently the Provost and Senior Vice President at WPI.