Dr. Nancy Haegel is the Center Director for the Materials Science Center in the Materials and Chemical Sciences Directorate at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Her research interests are in electronic materials and devices, with emphasis on transport characterization, high resistivity semiconductors and infrared imaging and detection.

During her visit to KAUST, as an invited speaker at the "KAUST Research Conference: Synergistic Approaches in Solar Energy Conversion" organized by KAUST Solar Center in February 2018, our Ph.D. student Esma Ugur caught up with Dr. Haegel to discuss and understand the future of Photovoltaic (PV) technologies. Dr. Haegel emphasized the need to develop customized PV technologies for specific applications as the opportunity and demand grows, as opposed to a single PV technology to address various applications. She also stressed the importance of developing materials and strategies geared towards low-cost manufacturing of PV. 'Stay close to what excites you about science' was her advice to young scientists.