​Joel W. Ager III is a Staff Scientist in the Materials Sciences Division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and an Adjunct Full Professor in the Materials Science and Engineering Department, UC Berkeley. He is a Principal Investigator in the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP), in the Electronic Materials Program, and in the Singapore Berkeley Initiative for Sustainable Energy (SinBeRISE). He graduated from Harvard College in 1982 with an A.B in Chemistry and from the University of Colorado in 1986 with a PhD in Chemical Physics. After a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Heidelberg, he joined Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 1989.

His research interests include the fundamental electronic and transport characteristics of photovoltaic materials, development of new photoanodes and photocathodes for solar fuels production, CO2 reduction electrocatalysis, and the development of new oxide and sulfide based transparent conductors. Professor Ager is a frequent invited speaker at international conferences and has published over 300 papers in refereed journals. His work is highly cited, with over 25,000 citations and an h-index of 78 (Google Scholar).