Dr. Ajeet Rohatgi is currently the Regents' Professor and a John H. Weitnauer, Jr. Chair in the College of Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is a well-known name in the field of photovoltaics. His work at Georgia Tech led him to create the solar cell manufacturing company Suniva, one of the fastest-growing companies in Georgia, and the only American company in the Southeast that produces high-efficiency monocrystalline silicon solar cells.
Prof. Rohatgi did his BS in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kanpur in 1971 and went on to obtain his master's in Materials Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1973 followed by a Ph.D. in Metallurgy and Materials Science from Leigh University in 1977. Prof. Rohatgi joined the Westinghouse Research and Development Center in Pittsburgh after completing his Ph.D. There he worked on the Science and Technology of photovoltaic and microelectronic devices. Later, he joined the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1985 as the ECE faculty, and started one of the best photovoltaics programs in the country. He gained recognition as an international leader in photovoltaics. He is the founding director of the first university-based DOE Center of Excellence in Photovoltaic Research and Education. His current research interests include the understanding of impurity effects in silicon solar cells, gettering and passivation of defects in solar-grade silicon, rapid thermal processing of solar cells, design and fabrication of high-efficiency cells on low-cost crystalline silicon materials, and design, performance, and reliability of photovoltaic systems. Prof. Ajeet Rohatgi is the recipient of the prestigious IITK Distinguished Alumnus Award 2019.
