David Mitzi

Simon Family Professor

David Mitzi received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Engineering Physics from Princeton University in 1985 and his Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Stanford University in 1990.  Prior to joining the faculty at Duke in 2014, Dr. Mitzi spent 23 years at IBM’s T.J. Watson Research Center, where his focus was on the search for and application of new electronic materials, including organic-inorganic hybrids and inorganic materials for photovoltaic, LED, transistor and memory applications.  For his final five years at IBM, he served as manager for the Photovoltaic Science and Technology Department, where he initiated and managed a multi-company program to develop a low-cost, high-throughput approach to deposit thin-film chalcogenide-based absorber layers for high-efficiency solar cells. Dr. Mitzi’s current research interests involve making emerging photovoltaic materials more effective, cost-efficient and competitive for the energy market. He holds a number of patents, and has authored or coauthored more than 200 papers and book chapters.

Appointments and Affiliations

• Simon Family Professor
• Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science
• Professor of Chemistry
• Faculty Network Member of The Energy Initiative

Contact Information

• Office Location: 363 Gross Hall, Box 90300, Durham, NC 27708
• Office Phone: (919) 660-5356
• Email Address: david.mitzi@duke.edu
• Websites:
  • Google Scholar - David B. Mitzi
  • Mitzi group website

Education

• Ph.D. Stanford University, 1990
• B.S. Princeton University, 1985

Research Interests

Making emerging photovoltaic materials more effective, cost-efficient and competitive for the energy market.

Awards, Honors, and Distinctions

• Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researcher. Clarivate Analytics. 2018
• MRS Fellow. Materials Research Society. 2018

Courses Taught

• ENRGYEGR 490: Special Topics in Energy Engineering
• ME 391: Undergraduate Projects in Mechanical Engineering
• ME 394: Engineering Undergraduate Fellows Projects
• ME 555: Advanced Topics in Mechanical Engineering
• ME 592: Research Independent Study in Mechanical Engineering or Material Science

In the News

• Duke Faculty Plentiful On ‘Highly Cited’ List (Nov 27, 2018)
• Supercomputer Predicts Optical and Thermal Properties of Complex Hybrid Materials (Oct 8, 2018 | Pratt School of Engineering)
• Pratt Researchers Join National Effort to Unlock New Energy Technologies (Aug 23, 2018 | Pratt School of Engineering)
• Duke Engineers Join National Center on Emerging Energy Materials (Aug 21, 2018)
• Mitzi Elected to Materials Research Society Fellows (Feb 10, 2018 | Pratt School of Engineering)
• Laser Evaporation Technology to Create New Solar Materials (Jan 3, 2018 | Pratt School of Engineering)
• Energy Initiative Awards Seven New Seed Grants (Apr 28, 2017)
• Duke Awards Distinguished Professorships, Inducts New Bass Society Members (May 5, 2016)
• Duke Initiative Brings a Lot of Energy to Research (May 7, 2015 | Duke Research Blog)
• Mitzi Awarded SunShot Initiative Funding to Improve Thin-Film Solar Cell Materials (Oct 23, 2014)
• David Mitzi: Harvesting More of the Sun’s Shine (Aug 18, 2014)

Representative Publications

• Sun, JP; Márquez, JA; Stange, H; Mainz, R; Mitzi, DB, Phase and film formation pathway for vacuum-deposited C u2BaSn(S,Se)4 absorber layers, Physical Review Materials, vol 3 no. 5 (2019) [10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.3.055402] [abs].
• Jana, MK; Janke, SM; Dirkes, DJ; Dovletgeldi, S; Liu, C; Qin, X; Gundogdu, K; You, W; Blum, V; Mitzi, DB, Direct-Bandgap 2D Silver-Bismuth Iodide Double Perovskite: The Structure-Directing Influence of an Oligothiophene Spacer Cation., Journal of the American Chemical Society, vol 141 no. 19 (2019), pp. 7955-7964 [10.1021/jacs.9b02909] [abs].
• Dunlap-Shohl, WA; Zhou, Y; Padture, NP; Mitzi, DB, Synthetic Approaches for Halide Perovskite Thin Films., Chemical Reviews, vol 119 no. 5 (2019), pp. 3193-3295 [10.1021/acs.chemrev.8b00318] [abs].
• Mitzi, DB, Introduction: Perovskites., Chemical Reviews, vol 119 no. 5 (2019), pp. 3033-3035 [10.1021/acs.chemrev.8b00800] [abs].
• Ding, J; Han, Q; Ge, QQ; Xue, DJ; Ma, JY; Zhao, BY; Chen, YX; Liu, J; Mitzi, DB; Hu, JS, Fully Air-Bladed High-Efficiency Perovskite Photovoltaics, Joule, vol 3 no. 2 (2019), pp. 402-416 [10.1016/j.joule.2018.10.025] [abs].