Posted March 19, 2013 Atlanta, GA
Ajeet Rohatgi has been named as the John H. Weitnauer, Jr. Chair in the College of Engineering and as a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar. Dr. Rohatgi also holds the title of Regents’ Professor and has been on the faculty of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at Georgia Tech since 1985.
Dr. Rohatgi started his research and educational program in solar cells, literally from scratch, when he arrived at Georgia Tech in the mid-1980s. In 1992, the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) awarded the nation’s first University Center of Excellence in Photovoltaics Research and Education (UCEP) to Dr. Rohatgi and his team, and the DoE has continuously funded by the Center since that time. The program has generated more than $40 million in external support and attracts many international visitors.
During his career, Dr. Rohatgi and his team have produced many record high efficiency solar cells and more than 400 technical papers. During the 1996 Olympics, the photovoltaics (PV) program showcased one of the world’s largest grid-connected systems on top of the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center. The system still produces 400 megawatt-hours annually, which is equal to the energy consumed by 50 homes.
Dr. Rohatgi is also the co-founder and chief technical officer of Suniva, an Atlanta-based solar cell manufacturing company, spun out of UCEP patents and intellectual property. Suniva is the only U.S.-based manufacturer of high-efficiency monocrystalline silicon solar cells in the Southeast using advanced, low-cost techniques to make solar-generated electricity cost-competitive with fossil fuels. Suniva has been named Georgia’s fastest growing small mid-market company, employing a diverse workforce of approximately 200 people.
Equally dedicated to PV education, Dr. Rohatgi has developed courses and built state-of-the-art labs for characterizing, modeling, and fabricating solar cells. He also established a PV Educational Support Program that provides practical training and education for Georgia Tech researchers and for other university PV programs in the U.S.
An IEEE Fellow, Dr. Rohatgi has won many technical society, government, and industrial awards for his work, including the Environmental Protection Agency Climate Award and the American Solar Energy Society Hoyt Clark Hottel Award. He has also been recognized at Georgia Tech with numerous educational, research, and commercialization honors, including most recently the ECE Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award and the Georgia Tech Outstanding Achievement in Research Innovation Award. Dr. Rohatgi was also named among the “Champions of PV” by Renewable Energy World Magazine in 2010.
About the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
The School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) is one of eight schools and departments in the College of Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. All ECE undergraduate and graduate programs are in the top 10 of the most recent college rankings by U.S. News & World Report. Over 2,500 students are enrolled in the School’s graduate and undergraduate programs, and in the last academic year, 723 degrees were awarded.
Over 110 ECE faculty members are involved in 11 areas of research, education, and commercialization – bioengineering, computer systems and software, digital signal processing, electric power, electromagnetics, electronic design and applications, microsystems, optics and photonics, systems and controls, telecommunications, and VLSI systems and digital design.
About the Georgia Institute of Technology
The Georgia Institute of Technology is one of the world's premier research universities. Ranked seventh among U.S. News & World Report's top public universities and the eighth best engineering and information technology university in the world by Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Academic Ranking of World Universities, Georgia Tech’s more than 20,000 students are enrolled in its Colleges of Architecture, Computing, Engineering, Liberal Arts, Business, and Sciences. Tech is among the nation's top producers of women and minority engineers. The Institute offers research opportunities to both undergraduate and graduate students and is home to more than 100 interdisciplinary units plus the Georgia Tech Research Institute.
