David Mitzi wins Cherry Award
Mitzi was recognized for his significant contributions to the science and technology of photovoltaics, or the conversion of light energy into electricity.
David Mitzi has been awarded the 2025 William R. Cherry Award by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for his significant work in photovoltaics — or the conversion of light into electricity — and the energy implications that come with advancements this field.
The IEEE Cherry Award was instituted in 1980 and is named in honor of William R. Cherry, a founder of the photovoltaic research community. In the 1950’s, Cherry played a vital role in establishing solar cells as the ideal space satellite power source, as well as in advancing the use of photovoltaic systems for terrestrial applications.
The award recognizes an individual engineer or scientist who has devoted a part of their professional life to making significant advances in photovoltaic energy conversion science and/or technology. The contributions must have been disseminated by substantial publications and presentations.
Mitzi is the Simon Family Distinguished Professor at Duke University, with appointments in the Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science (MEMS) and the Department of Chemistry. He is also the executive director of Duke’s Shared Materials Instrumentation Facility (SMIF), an interdisciplinary shared resource that provides researchers, educators and industry collaborators with high quality and cost-effective access to advanced characterization, imaging and cleanroom fabrication capabilities.
Before coming to Duke, Mitzi worked for 23 years at IBM’s Watson Research Center, where he studied and developed new electronic materials such as organic-inorganic hybrids and solution-processable inorganic semiconductors for photovoltaics, light-emission, transistor, and memory applications. During this time, he conducted pioneering work on structure-property relationships, film deposition and crystal growth techniques, and early electronic device (e.g., transistor, LED) demonstrations of halide-based perovskites, a family of materials that dominates contemporary emerging photovoltaic research and commercialization efforts.
For over 10 years until 2021, Mitzi’s team held the power conversion efficiency record (for converting sunlight into electricity) in an important class of thin-film solar absorbers known as copper zinc tin sulfide/selenide (CZTSSe). His current group at Duke continues to study halide-based perovskites and complex chalcogenide semiconductors, two classes of material that provide promising avenues for low-cost next-generation energy devices.
Mitzi is a Fellow of the Materials Research Society (MRS), a Clarivate Analytics Highly-Cited Researcher, and received the 2020 American Chemical Society (ACS) Award in the Chemistry of Materials for his pioneering work on halide perovskites.
