Dr. Nam-Gyu Park stands as a world-renowned materials scientist whose pioneering work has revolutionized the field of photovoltaic technology. He currently serves as a Lifetime Distinguished Professor at the School of Chemical Engineering and Director of the SKKU Institute of Energy Science and Technology at Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea. Born in 1960, Dr. Park received his B.S. degree in Chemical Education from Seoul National University in 1988, followed by his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Chemistry from the same institution in 1992 and 1995, respectively. His early career included formative postdoctoral research at ICMCB-CNRS in France from 1996 to 1997 and at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the United States from 1997 to 1999. Since joining Sungkyunkwan University as a professor in July 2009, Dr. Park has established himself as a global leader in renewable energy research.
Dr. Park's most transformative contribution came in August 2012 when he developed the world's first solid perovskite solar cell in collaboration with Professor Michael Grätzel at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland. His groundbreaking publication in Scientific Reports reported the first stable and efficient solid perovskite solar cell with 9.7% efficiency that maintained performance for over 500 hours under outdoor conditions. This seminal work is widely regarded as the foundation of the modern perovskite photovoltaics field, catalyzing global research efforts that have since pushed efficiencies above 25%. His discovery of practical solid-state perovskite solar cells has fundamentally transformed the solar energy landscape, offering a potentially lower-cost alternative to silicon-based photovoltaics with remarkable efficiency gains in a remarkably short timeframe. With over 92,000 citations according to Google Scholar, Dr. Park's research represents one of the most influential bodies of work in contemporary energy science.
Dr. Park's exceptional contributions have been recognized with numerous prestigious awards including the British Rank Prizes for Optoelectronics in 2022, the ENI Award for Energy Frontiers in 2024, and the German Humboldt Research Award in 2025. In 2023, he was the only South Korean scientist invited to present his work on solid perovskite solar cells at the Nobel Symposium hosted by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Beyond his research achievements, Dr. Park actively shapes the scientific community as a Senior Editor of ACS Energy Letters and serves on the Editorial Advisory Boards for Chemical Reviews, ChemSusChem, and Solar RRL. His current research focuses on advancing the scalability and stability of perovskite solar cells while exploring novel materials combinations to overcome existing technical barriers. As a Fellow of the Korean Academy of Science and Technology since 2017, Dr. Park continues to lead the global effort toward making perovskite photovoltaics a commercially viable technology that can significantly contribute to the world's renewable energy portfolio.
