Although Professor Jean-Luc Bredas, Director of the Solar and Photovoltaics Engineering Research Center (SPERC), spent his entire educational career from primary school through his Ph.D. in chemistry in Namur, Belgium, that didn't stop him from moving to the U.S., and then to Saudi Arabia, later in life.

"I was not very mobile until finishing my Ph.D., but then I moved to MIT and the Allied Chemical Corporate Research Center as a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow on a joint industry-university program," explained Prof. Bredas. "After that I kept returning to the U.S. to different institutions for at least the summer, if not longer periods of time – I enjoyed doing new things there and learning more about new ideas and research topics."

In 1988, Prof. Bredas was appointed as a professor at the University of Mons in Mons, Belgium, but the U.S. continued to draw him back during the summers, and in 1999 he emigrated there with his wife and two daughters.

"I became a professor of chemistry at the University of Arizona," said Prof. Bredas. "I thought that I would stay there for a number of years, but in 2003 I moved with three of my colleagues to Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Georgia." Interestingly, he noted that this was made possible by then-Georgia Tech provost Jean-Lou Chameau, who is now the President of KAUST.

Prof. Bredas stayed at Georgia Tech for 11 years, where he ran the Bredas Research Group in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Research in his group concentrated on examining computationally the structural, electronic, optical and inferfacial properties of novel organic materials with promising characteristics in different fields, including electronics, photonics and information technology.

INTRODUCTION TO SAUDI ARABIA

In 2007, Prof. Bredas was first introduced to KAUST. "I was part of a proposal for a center to be funded by KAUST. This collaboration revolved around advanced molecular photovoltaics, and it began in the summer of 2008," he said.

His first trip to the Kingdom to visit KAUST was in 2010, when he journeyed there to see the University and the fruits of the research collaboration. By 2011, Prof. Bredas had another connection with the Kingdom: he was appointed as an adjunct professor of chemistry at King Abdulaziz University (KAU) in Jeddah.

"I was excited about the appointment to KAU because I wanted to see a Saudi university with a long history in the Kingdom," he said. "My appointment ended when I came to KAUST in 2014, but it was very interesting to experience KAU's environment."

KAUST attracted Prof. Bredas for a number of reasons, but one of the most important was the flexibility of the University's system and the provision of time and resources to faculty to carry out their own research.

"I was very successful in the U.S. system, but I wanted to come to a place where I could spend much more time looking at research instead of writing proposal after proposal," said Prof. Bredas. "KAUST offers us the resources to allow us to spend time thinking of new projects and building on those projects, which is really fantastic."

BUILDING A STRONG SOLAR TEAM AT KAUST

Today Prof. Bredas is concentrating on building a strong research team in SPERC and in his own KAUST research group. Currently there are 18 people in Prof. Bredas' KAUST group, and he hopes to soon have 20 working there.

"One Ph.D. student has started working with us, and I hope soon more of my former students from Georgia Tech, as well as students from the University of Mons, will be able to come as visiting research students for periods of time to experience KAUST. I have always encouraged the exchange of students across institutions, so I feel this is very important," he said.

Prof. Bredas also hopes to "bring SPERC to the next level," and one of his key assets in this mission is the new Managing Director of SPERC, Dr. Marc Vermeersch. "Dr. Vermeersch is an expert in the technological and business side of solar energy and engineering," he explained. "I believe that in conjunction with my own academic expertise, the two of us, together with the other SPERC faculty, will make an excellent team."

The Solar Center is key to the development of the Kingdom as a knowledge-based economy, noted Prof. Bredas. "Taking solar energy and trying to make the best use of it are key elements that not only affect the Kingdom, but also go well beyond it," he said. "Being part of a university with this mission is extremely exciting, but also demanding. In five years we hope to have made some important and essential discoveries at the center. It is very motivating to be in a place like KAUST where efforts are really being made to move the Kingdom forward in science and technology."

In his short time in Saudi Arabia, Prof. Bredas has also begun exploring Jeddah and the Kingdom. "It is fascinating to not only see how KAUST has developed since my first trip here in 2010, but also how Jeddah is developing," he said. "KAUST is extremely important in its vision as the new House of Wisdom, and I am honored to be here to experience the kind and gentle spirit of the Saudi people."

- by Caitlin Clark, KAUST News