Prof Ruy Sebastian Bonilla

Sebastian received a Bachelor's degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Universidad de los Andes, Colombia, in 2008. He later interned for CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, 2008, and for Asylum Research, in 2009. He completed an MPhil degree in Micro and Nanotechnology at the University of Cambridge, UK, in 2010. He was a lecturer in Electronics at Universidad de los Andes in 2010-2011. He later completed a Doctorate in Materials in the Semiconductors Group funded by a Clarendon Scholarship, in 2015, researching novel methods to maximise surface passivation for silicon solar cells. After, he was awarded an EPSRC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship to deepen the understanding and advance industrial deployment of new methods of silicon surface passivation, which he held from 2015 to 2018. At the same time, he became a Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford, holding his JRF until 2021. From 2019-2024 he held a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellow in the Oxford Materials Department. From 2021, he is an Associate Professor of Materials in the Materials Department and a Stipendiary Lecturer in Materials Science at St Anne's College, Oxford. From 2022 to 2023 he held a Hugh Price Research Fellowship at Jesus College Oxford. From 2023, he is an Associate Professor of Materials and Tutorial Fellow of St Anne's College Oxford. 

Sebastian has made major contributions to the field of functional thin films and silicon photovoltaics, including the first report of stable and controllable K ion-charged SiO2 nanolayers, which he patented and exploited in solar cell architectures. He also investigated mechanisms of surface losses in solar cells and demonstrated world-record processing to minimise loss. He contributed to the fundamental understanding of Si-SiO2 and Si-TiOx interfaces and demonstrated world-record passivation in SiO2-Si, SiNx/SiO2-Si, and amorphous(α)-Si/Si interfaces. These interfaces are crucial to the operation of solar and electrochemical devices and have set out the basis for multiple grant proposals and collaborations with leading international institutes. He has also been involved in the discovery of a new way of incorporating hydrogen into silicon. Overall, his team's work has greatly benefitted the global solar energy community, both academic and industrial, including passivation nanolayers, benchmarks for charged thin films, cell processing advances, and an understanding of degradation in commercial solar cells. 

He leads the Interface and Electronic Materials Laboratory, hosting >10 scientists and researching a variety of electronic interface materials crucial to the operation of solar photovoltaic and optoelectronic devices. He has been involved in raising >£4.8m in funding, out of which >£3.2m has been as PI (a large portion via UK Research and Innovation). The excellence and international leadership of his research are shown by a sustained and well-regarded publication record, including some of the most reputable journals in solar energy materials. His team's work has been featured in PV-Magazine.com (1a, 1b, 2, 3) demonstrating its industrial relevance. The achievement and exceptional promise of Sebastian's research has been recognised with a 2022 Philip Leverhulme Prize in Engineering. He is also a Europe Fellow at the International Strategy Forum by Schmidt Futures – a philanthropic initiative aimed at creating a network of rising leaders to strengthen progress and security amid technological innovation.