New Energy Announces Appointment of Award-Winning Physicist and SolarWindow Lead Researcher

New Energy Technologies, Inc. announced that it bolstered the company’s Scientific Advisory Board with the appointment of Dr. Z. Valy Vardeny, one of the world’s foremost experimental physicists, and Dr. Xiaomei Jiang, lead researcher of New Energy’s SolarWindow technology, capable of generating electricity on see-thru glass.

The announcement follows last week’s debut of New Energy’s largest-ever SolarWindow of its kind. Working under the auspices of Dr. Jiang, New Energy successfully developed a one-foot by one-foot (144 square inches) first-generation working prototype of the company’s SolarWindow.

New Energy’s latest, large-area prototype is 300% larger in its axis dimension and 900% larger in surface area as compared to its four-inch by four-inch predecessor, unveiled in September 2010.

The prospect of generating electricity on glass windows is made possible through the use of special compounds which help conduct electricity on SolarWindow, yet remain see-thru. In contrast, conventional materials for conducting electricity make use of metals which can block visibility and inhibit transparency.

Electricity is generated on SolarWindow by spraying see-thru, electricity-generating coatings onto glass surfaces. These compounds and coatings make use of organic chemicals classified as polymers and fullerenes – Dr. Vardeny’s specific area of expertise.

Dr. Vardeny’s research interests include technologies particularly important to helping improve efficiency, electrical power output and the performance and design of the solar arrays used in New Energy’s SolarWindow.

Specifically, his focus on optical, electrical and magnetic properties of organic semiconductors addresses the movement of electrons, as occurs in SolarWindow. This ‘flow’ of electrons (negatively charged particles) is fundamental to generating electric ‘current’, necessary for powering appliances and fixtures.

The performance of SolarWindow is also reliant upon the behavior and structure of compounds which help promote the transportation of electrons, necessary for generating electricity. These compounds, called fullerenes, organic semiconductors, and nanotubes, are also areas of specific research study for Dr. Vardeny.

Dr. Vardeny currently serves as a distinguished professor of physics at the University of Utah; a fellow of the American Physical Society (1996); is editor of both Nature Communication, and Journal of Synthetic Metals; and is consultant to major corporations. He also holds a dozen provisional and issued patents.

Dr. Z. Valy Vardeny earned his B.S. and Ph.D. in Physics from the Technion, Haifa, Israel. He received the Yigal Alon National Award in 1982; the University of Utah Research award in 1996; the Willard Award of Art and Science in 1997; the Lady Davis Professorship at the Technion in 2000, in 2005 and again in 2009; the Utah Governor’s Medal of Science and Technology in 2005; the 2008 Frank Isakson APS Prize for Optical Effects in Solids; and the Rosenblatt Award for Excellence at the University of Utah, the university’s highest honor.

Dr. Jiang currently serves as lead researcher in the ongoing development of New Energy’s SolarWindow technology, and is credited with several important technical breakthroughs for achieving transparency on glass while generating electricity.

Under her auspices, researchers developing the company’s SolarWindow technology have surpassed numerous technical milestones, which include the ability to ‘spray’ New Energy’s electricity-generating coating onto glass surfaces at room temperature, unlike conventional solar manufacturing which may require expensive and cumbersome pressure-sensitive and temperature-specific environments.

Last week, under Dr. Jiang’s leadership, scientists successfully prototyped the Company’s first-ever one-foot by one-foot SolarWindow, an important milestone in the development of a large-scale commercial product.

Dr. Jiang currently is an assistant professor of physics at the University of South Florida. Dr. Jiang received her B.S from Sichuan University in southwest China in 1987, and M.S in theoretical condensed matters physics from the Institute of Solid State Physics of the Chinese Academy of Science in 1990. In 2004, Dr. Jiang received her Ph.D in experimental condensed matters physics from the University of Utah.

Dr. Jiang completed two years of postdoctoral work from 2004 to 2006 at the University of Texas at Dallas. She has served as assistant professor for the Physics Department of University of South Florida since August 2006.