Professor Joachim Luther appointed as CEO of the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore SERIS

Professor Joachim Luther, the former director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE is to lead the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore SERIS founded in February 2008.

SERIS was set up as an independent institution within the National University of Singapore NUS. For the first five years, a budget of approximately 60 million EURO is provided, about half of which is planned for investments in scientific and technical equipment.

“Building up SERIS in Singapore gives me the possibility to again play an active and formative role in the area of solar energy research and technology development,” says Joachim Luther. “My wife and I immensely enjoy undertaking new things. The Singapore government and the National University of Singapore are presenting us the best conditions for doing just this.”

The work at SERIS will be predominantly industry-oriented. Innovations directed toward the short- and mid-term time frame are the focus of the research. The work strongly oriented towards the long-term time frame will be carried out in close cooperation between the NUS and SERIS. The initial areas of focus in research and development are: silicon-based solar cells (wafer and thin film solar cells), nanostructured solar cells as well as materials and system research for solar and energy efficient buildings.

SERIS offers the chance to build up a close research cooperation between Germany and the Far East where both sides jointly reinforce the other.

“Not only the industry, but also research is becoming globalized at a fast pace. Fraunhofer ISE will take on the resulting challenges in a strategic manner,” says Professor Eicke R. Weber, director of the Fraunhofer ISE. “I am happy about Professor Luther´s new activities in Singapore. He and I are determined to develop a close cooperation between both institutes, and I am certain that both institutes will greatly profit from it.”