Richard Lunt
Johansen Crosby Endowed Professor
Richard is the inventor of over 25 U.S. patents, the majority of which have been licensed.
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Richard R. Lunt joined the faculty of Michigan State University in 2011 in the Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and Physics Departments. He earned his B.Ch.E. from the University of Delaware, graduating with honors for his work on phase equilibria in superconducting-related perovskites under Douglas J. Buttrey. He received his PhD in chemical engineering from Princeton University while working with Stephen Forrest at the University of Michigan (2006-2010) and Jay B. Benziger at Princeton. ... While building his lab at MSU he worked as a postdoctoral associate at MIT with Vladimir Bulović. He has won a number of awards for his innovative research and is the inventor of over 25 U.S. patents, the majority of which have been licensed. He is a co-founder of Ubiquitous Energy Inc., which is commercializing transparent solar cells that enable seamless deployment of light-harvesting functionality in the form of products and surfaces. He is also cofounder of GlowShop LLC, which is commercializing educational kits for solar energy.
Read MoreEducation
MIT: Postdoctoral Research, Electrical and Electronics Engineering | 2011
Princeton University: PhD, Chemical Engineering | 2010
University of Delaware: BCHE, Chemical Engineering | 2004
Selected Press
Can solar technology kill cancer cells?
MSU Today | 2019-10-25
Scientific breakthroughs don’t always happen in labs. For Sophia and Richard Lunt, Michigan State University researchers, many of their breakthroughs happen during neighborhood walks.
35 Innovators Under 35
MIT Technology Review | 2019-08-17
Richard Lunt invented solar cells you can see through. They’re made of molecules that absorb ultraviolet and infrared light—wavelengths that we can’t see—and convert it into electricity while letting visible light through. Applied as a coating on the screen of a phone or smart watch, they generate power so the gadget lasts longer between charges. Some low-power devices with the coating, such as e–readers, might not need to be plugged in at all.
First transparent solar technology invented at Michigan State
Indiana Environmental Reporter | 2019-06-18
Researchers at Michigan State University have successfully created the first completely transparent solar panels.
These panels, which were announced earlier this year, can collect solar energy without affecting the transference of light, which makes it possible to install them on surfaces that would otherwise be unsuitable for collecting green energy.
Skyscrapers could soon generate their own power, thanks to see-through solar cells
Science Magazine | 2018-06-28
This week in Joule, a team led by Richard Lunt, a chemical engineer from Michigan State University in East Lansing, reports that it tuned the materials to develop a UV-absorbing perovskite solar window with an efficiency of 0.5%. Although that's fathoms below the efficiency of the best perovskite cells, Lunt says it's high enough to power another window technology: on-demand darkening glass that halts intense light in the heat of the day, thereby reducing a building's need for air conditioning. Lunt believes his team has a clear path to get to efficiencies of 4% in the next few years. At that rate, the cells could power some of the building's lighting and air conditioning.
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