Dunbar P. Birnie, III, PhD, is the Corning/Saint-Gobain•Malcolm G. McLaren Professor of Ceramic Engineering in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Rutgers University. Prof. Birnie earned his BS (’81) and PhD (’86) from MIT. Much of Prof. Birnie’s research is aimed at fabricating coatings for solar power collection – especially for dye-sensitized solar cells that might be suitable for low-cost roll-to-roll printing processes. Other work in Prof. Birnie’s group has aimed at expanding the utilization of solar power, both in buildings (better array design logistics) and for the charging of batteries used for electric transportation (for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles).
