Plenary Speakers
Explore the ISPSA 2026 Plenary Program and meet the global leaders shaping the next era of semiconductor physics. Full speaker details will be updated progressively. Plenary speakers are listed in alphabetical order by last name.
Prof. Henk Bolink
(Universidad de Valencia, Spain)
Presentation Title
Vacuum processed perovskite solar cells
Biography
Hendrik (Henk) Bolink is full professor at the Inorganic Chemistry Department and group leader at the Instituto de Ciencia Molecular of the Universidad de Valencia. He obtained his PhD in Materials Science at the University of Groningen in 1997. After that he worked at DSM as a materials scientist and project manager in the central research and new business development department, respectively. In 2001 he joined Philips, to lead the materials development activity of Philips´s PolyLED project.
He has worked on organic semiconductor opto-electronic devices since 1993. From 2013 he started working on perovskite based LEDs and solar cells. Focusing mainly on dry processing routes, such as thermal sublimation to prepare the perovskite semiconductor films and subsequent devices. He directed 29 PhD thesis and has been PI of ca. 20 industry funded research projects and of 19 European funded projects. In 2019 he received an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council.
Lecture Summary
I will discuss the benefits of vacuum processing of metal halide perovskite semiconductors for their use in photovoltaic devices. I will report on the progress on vapor phase deposited perovskites, including novel low vacuum based deposition methods such as close-space and vapor transport sublimation. In-situ monitoring of the photoluminescence during the deposition of the perovskite enables us to learn about their specific growth mechanism. We use this to study the effect of seeding layers on the perovskite growth which helps us to achieve high quality films that lead to solar cells with efficiencies above 23 %.
I will also discuss the benefit of using these perovskites in substrate configuration as well as semitransparent cells for bifacial operation and for building integrated PV. The use of sublimed perovskite in perovskite-silicon tandem cells using fully textured Si bottom cells will be presented, including methods to identify the shortcomings of these tandem cells. I will also comment on the performance of these cells under accelerated stress conditions and under outdoor stressing.
Prof. Jing Kong
(MIT, USA)
Presentation Title
-
Biography
Jing Kong received her B.S degree in Chemistry from Peking University, Beijing, China in 1997 and PhD degree in Chemistry from Stanford University in the United States, 2002. In 2004, she joined the faculty at MIT, where she is currently Professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department. She has worked in the field of carbon nanotubes since 1997 and has published numerous papers on this subject. In MIT, this research has led to the synthesis of related nanostructures such as graphene and later graphene-like two dimensional materials. The current research activity in her group involves CVD synthesis, characterization of these low dimensional materials, investigation of their electronic and optical properties and developing their applications.
Lecture Summary
Will be updated soon.
Prof. John A. Rogers
(Northwestern University, USA)
Presentation Title
Semiconductor Nanomaterials for Bioelectronic Systems
Biography
Professor John A. Rogers obtained BA and BS degrees in chemistry and in physics from the University of Texas,
Austin, in 1989. From MIT, he received SM degrees in physics and in chemistry in 1992 and a PhD degree in physical
chemistry in 1995. From 1995 to 1997, Rogers was a Junior Fellow in the Harvard University Society of Fellows.
He joined Bell Laboratories as a Member of Technical Staff in 1997 and served as Director of the Condensed Matter
Physics Research Department from 2000 to 2002. He then spent thirteen years on the faculty at the University of Illinois
at Urbana/Champaign, finally as the Swanlund Chair Professor and Director of the Seitz Materials Research Laboratory.
In the Fall of 2016, he joined the faculty at Northwestern University where he is Director of the Querrey-Simpson
Institute for Bioelectronics. He has published ~1000 papers and he is co-inventor on ~100 patents, >70 of which are
licensed and in active use. More than 160 former members of his group are now in faculty positions at universities
around the world. His research has been recognized by many awards, including a MacArthur Fellowship (2009),
the Lemelson-MIT Prize (2011), the Smithsonian Award (2013), the Benjamin Franklin Medal (2019), a Guggenheim Fellowship
(2021), the James Prize (2022), the IEEE Biomedical Engineering Award (2024) and the Bakerian Medal of the Royal Society
(2025). He is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering, of Sciences, of Medicine and of Inventors,
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Royal Society.
Lecture Summary
Advanced electronic/optoelectronic systems built using classes of nanomaterials that enable intimate integration with living
organisms will accelerate progress in biomedical research; they will also serve as the foundations for new approaches in
monitoring and treating diseases. Specifically, capabilities for injecting miniaturized electronic elements, light sources,
photodetectors, multiplexed sensors and other components into precise locations of soft tissues or for softly laminating them
onto the surfaces of vital organs will open up unique and important opportunities in tracking and manipulating biological
processes. This presentation describes concepts in materials science and assembly techniques that underpin these types of
technologies, including bioresorbable, or ‘transient’, devices designed to disappear into the body on timescales matched to
natural processes. Examples include skin-like devices for health monitoring, ‘cellular-scale’ optofluidic neural probes for
optogenetics research and bioelectronic ‘medicines’ for accelerated regeneration of damaged peripheral nerves and temporary
cardiac pacing.
Prof. Feng Wang
(UC Berkeley, USA)
Presentation Title
Electron solids in atomically thin semiconductors
Biography
Feng Wang received a BS degree in Physics in 1999 from Fudan University in Shanghai, China. He received his PhD from Columbia working with Prof. Tony Heinz in 2004. Afterwards he was a Miller fellow at UC Berkeley, and then joined the Physics Faculty at Berkeley in 2008. His current research interest focuses on exploring emerging quantum phenomena in two-dimensional van der Waals heterostructures. Feng Wang made pioneering contributions in the understanding of photophysics in graphene and transition metal dichalcogenide and novel electronic and optical behavior of two-dimensional moire heterostructures. He has received the Alfred Sloan research fellowship, the Packard fellowship, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. He was elected as an APS fellow in 2016. He received APS Frank Isakson Prize for Optical Effects in Solids in 2024.
Lecture Summary
Free electrons in a semiconductor are usually described by weakly interacting Fermi liquid that conducts electricity. However, Wigner pointed out 90 years ago that Coulomb interactions become dominant at low electron density and low temperature, resulting in the formation of the electron solid, known as the Wigner crystals. Atomically thin two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors and heterostructures offer a highly tunable platform for exploring the electron solid phases. In this talk, I will describe our effort to directly image the Wigner crystal and its quantum melting behavior in atomically thin semiconductors using scanning tunneling microscopy. I will also discuss a rich variety of Wigner solid behaviors that can emerge when one- and two-dimensional potentials are imposed on atomically thin semiconductors and when the electron becomes anisotropic.
Prof. Amir Yacoby
(Harvard University, USA)
Presentation Title
Local Probes of Spin Excitations in Quantum Matter
Biography
Amir Yacoby is a Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Harvard University. He received his bachelor’s degree in the field of Aerospace engineering and then transitioned into Physics. Following a Master’s degree in theoretical Physics, Yacoby received his PhD in experimental condensed matter physics in 1994 from the Weizmann Institute of Science.
Professor Yacoby is a member of the National Academy of Science, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Fellow of the American Physical Society, member of the American Academy for Advancement of Science and an external member of the Max Planck Society. Professor Yacoby works to develop new experimental techniques to explore quantum matter and uses these techniques to obtain new insights into their underlying quantum mechanical properties.
Professor Yacoby is a member of the National Academy of Science, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Fellow of the American Physical Society, member of the American Academy for Advancement of Science and an external member of the Max Planck Society. Professor Yacoby works to develop new experimental techniques to explore quantum matter and uses these techniques to obtain new insights into their underlying quantum mechanical properties.
Lecture Summary
Over 50 years ago Halperin and Hohenberg [1] predicted that certain magnetic systems behave analogously to liquid Helium. In this talk I will describe some of our recent work that uses NV center magnetometry to explore spin excitations in layered magnets. By employing different measurement modalities we are able to directly observe signatures of magnon hydrodynamics and magnon second sound which is analogous to second sound in superfluid liquid Helium. Finally by directly detecting coherent spin waves we are able to devise a new scattering platform for exploring mesoscopic magnetism.
[1] Halperin and Hohenberg, Physical Review 188, 898 (1969)
[1] Halperin and Hohenberg, Physical Review 188, 898 (1969)
Prof. J. Joshua Yang
(University of Southern California, USA)
Presentation Title
-
Biography
J. Joshua Yang is the Arthur B. Freeman Chair Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Southern California. He was a professor of the ECE department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst between 2015 and 2020. He spent about 8 years at HP Labs between 2007 and 2015, leading an emerging materials and devices team for memory and computing. His current research interest is Post-CMOS hardware for in-memory computing, near-sensor compputing, neuromorphic computing, machine learning and artificial intelligence. He holds 121 granted and about 60 pending US Patents, among which two patents on MRAM were licensed by a world leading semiconductor company, the patents on RRAM were transferred to memory manufacturers and national Labs for product development, and the patents on neuromorphic computing led to a fast-growing startup company recently.
Dr. Yang is a Co-founder and the Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of TetraMem Inc., a startup company focusing on the hardware acceleration of AI/ML. He is the Director of the Center of Excellence on Neuromoprhic Computing sponsored by Air Force and a Co-director of the Institute for the Future of Computing at the University of Southern California.
Dr. Yang has guest-edited 12 journal special issues on Memory or unconventional computing. He serves on a number of Advisory Boards of international journals and conferences. He serves as an Associate Editor of Science Advances (AAAS). He is the Founding Chair of the IEEE Neuromorphic Computing Technical Committee, a recipient of the Powell Faculty Research Award, and a recipient of UMass distinguished faculty lecturer and UMass Chancellor Medal, the highest honor of UMass. He was named as a Spotlight Scholar of UMass Amherst in 2017. He is a Clarivate™ Highly Cited Researcher in the field of Cross-Field. He is among the Top Best Scientists in the Research.com list in the Electronics and Electrical Engineering category. Dr. Yang was elected to the IEEE Fellow and the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) Fellow for contributions in resistive switching materials and devices for memory and neuromorphic computing.
Lecture Summary
Will be updated soon.

