# Photovoltaic Specialists Conference

The IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (also called PVSC) is the longest running technical conference dedicated to photovoltaics, solar cells, and solar power. The first PVSC was in 1961 at the NASA headquarters in Washington DC. The number of conference areas have expanded and now include PV reliability and solar resource. The conference has also had many diverse and distinguished keynote speakers like Sarah Kurtz who won the conference's William Cherry Award in 2012. PVSC is also where the most notable breakthroughs in PV are often first announced, such as record Solar-cell efficiency, new technologies like perovskite, TOPCon, heterojunction (HJT), and tandem cells, derivation of new algorithms, and discoveries of new phenomena such as Potential-induced degradation and light and elevated temperature induced degradation (LeTID).
PVSC is one of the three hosts of the quadrennial World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion (WCPEC), along with the International Photovoltaic Science and Engineering Conference (PVSEC) on the Asia-Pacific side and European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition (EU PVSEC) on the European side.

## William R. Cherry Award

PVSC honors scientists and researchers who have made significant contributions to the field of photovoltaics since 1980. Notable recipients include Joseph J. Loferski in 1981, Martin Green in 1990, Richard Swanson in 2002, Stuart Wenham in 2009, and Professor Harry Atwater in 2019.

## Women in PV Lunch

For at least the past ten years, PVSC has held a luncheon with speakers who have recognized the significant contribution of women in photovoltaics.

## Middle and high school competition

For over 20 years, PVSC has inspired high school youth to engage with scientists, explore and present their concepts at the conference, and compete to win prizes. Starting in 2020, the competition was expanded to include middle school students. The format was changed to encourage more creativity by asking students to write about how solar energy will change the future in the "Solar Future Narratives" competition, and to pitch solar energy projects that could positively impact their communities in the "Solar Energy Video Pitch" competition.

## Location history

| PVSC # | Year | Location | Chair | Cherry Award |
| PVSC-1 | 1961 | Washington, DC | | |
| PVSC-2 | 1962 | Washington, DC | Walter C. Scott | |
| PVSC-3 | 1963 | Washington, DC | Walter C. Scott | |
| PVSC-4 | 1964 | Cleveland, OH | | |
| PVSC-5 | 1965 | Greenbelt, MD | Paul Rappaport | |
| PVSC-6 | 1967 | Cocoa Beach, FL | William R. Cherry | |
| PVSC-7 | 1968 | Pasadena, CA | Robert E. Fischell | |
| PVSC-8 | 1970 | Seattle, WA | Joseph J. Loferski | |
| PVSC-9 | 1972 | Silver Springs, MD | Martin Wolf | |
| PVSC-10 | 1973 | Palo Alto, CA | Richard L. Statler | |
| PVSC-11 | 1975 | Scottsdale, AZ | Denis R. Curtin | |
| PVSC-12 | 1976 | Baton Rouge, LA | Americo F. Forestieri | |
| PVSC-13 | 1978 | Washington, DC | John V. Goldsmith | |
| PVSC-14 | 1980 | San Diego, CA | Charles E. Backus | Paul Rappaport |
| PVSC-15 | 1981 | Kissimmee, FL | Charles J. Bishop | Joseph J. Loferski |
| PVSC-16 | 1982 | San Diego, CA | Henry W. Brandhorst, Jr. | Martin Wolf |
| PVSC-17 | 1984 | Kissimmee, FL | Eugene L. Ralph | Henry W. Brandhorst |
| PVSC-18 | 1985 | Las Vegas, NV | Allen M. Barnett | Eugene L. Ralph |
| PVSC-19 | 1987 | New Orleans, LA | Lawrence L. Kazmerski | Charles E. Backus |
| PVSC-20 | 1988 | Las Vegas, NV | Joseph F. Wise | David E. Carlson |
| PVSC-21 | 1990 | Kissimmee, FL | John D. Meakin | Martin A. Green |
| PVSC-22 | 1991 | Las Vegas, NV | Cosmo R. Barona | Peter A. Iles |
| PVSC-23 | 1993 | Louisville, KY | Richard J. Schwartz | Lawrence L. Kazmerski |
| PVSC-24 (WCPEC-1) | 1994 | Waikoloa Village, HI (1st World Conference) | Dennis J. Flood (General Chair), Jurgen Schmid and Masafumi Yamaguchi (Vice Chairs) | Yoshihiro Hamakawa |
| PVSC-25 | 1996 | Washington, DC | Eldon C. Boes | Allen M. Barnett |
| PVSC-26 | 1997 | Anaheim, CA | Paul Basore | Adolf Goetzberger |
| PVSC-27 (WCPEC-2) | 1998 | Vienna, Austria (2nd World Conference) | Jurgen Schmid (General Chair), Kosuke Kurokawa and Sheila G. Bailey (Vice Chairs) | Richard J. Schwartz |
| PVSC-28 | 2000 | Anchorage, AK | Ajeet Rohatgi | Christopher R. Wronski |
| PVSC-29 | 2002 | New Orleans, LA | John Benner | Richard Swanson |
| PVSC-30 (WCPEC-3) | 2003 | Osaka, Japan (3rd World Conference) | Kosuke Kurokawa (General Chair), Lawrence L. Kazmerski and Bernard McNelis (Vice Chairs) | Ajeet Rohatgi |
| PVSC-31 | 2005 | Lake Buena Vista, FL | Christopher R. Wronski | Timothy J. Coutts |
| PVSC-32 (WCPEC-4) | 2006 | Waikoloa Village, HI (4th World Conference) | Sheila Bailey (General Chair), Heinz Ossenbrink and Makoto Konagai (Vice Chairs) | Antonio Luque |
| PVSC-33 | 2008 | San Diego, CA | Timothy J. Coutts | Masafumi Yamaguchi |
| PVSC-34 | 2009 | Philadelphia, PA | Tim Anderson | Stuart Wenham |
| PVSC-35 | 2010 | Honolulu, HI | Robert Walters | Richard R. King |
| PVSC-36 (WCPEC-5) | 2010 | Valencia, Spain (5th World Conference) | Giovanni De Santi (General Chair), Makoto Konagai and Robert Walters (Vice Chairs) | |
| PVSC-37 | 2011 | Seattle, WA | David Wilt | Jerry M. Olson |
| PVSC-38 | 2012 | Austin, TX | B.J. Stanbery | Sarah Kurtz |
| PVSC-39 | 2013 | Tampa, FL | Ryne Rafaelle | Keith Emery |
| PVSC-40 | 2014 | Denver, CO | Richard R. King | Ronald A. Sinton |
| PVSC-41 (WCPEC-6) | 2014 | Kyoto, Japan (6th World Conference) | Makoto Konagai (General Chair), A. Jager Waldau and B.J. Stanbery (Vice Chairs) | |
| PVSC-42 | 2015 | New Orleans, LA | Steven A. Ringel | Christiana Honsberg |
| PVSC-43 | 2016 | Portland, OR | Angus Rockett | Pierre Verlinden |
| PVSC-44 | 2017 | Washington, DC | Angèle Reinders | Eli Yablonovitch |
| PVSC-45 (WCPEC-7) | 2018 | Waikoloa Village, HI (7th World Conference) | Alex Freundlich (General Chair), Marko Topič and Akira Yamada (Vice Chairs) | Vasilis Fthenakis |
| PVSC-46 | 2019 | Chicago, IL | Sarah Kurtz | Harry Atwater |
| PVSC-47 | 2020 | Virtual (COVID-19) | Seth Hubbard | James Sites |
| PVSC-48 | 2021 | Virtual (COVID-19) | Sylvain Marsillac | Thorsten Trupke |
| PVSC-49 | 2022 | Philadelphia, PA | Bill Shafarman | Stephen R. Forrest |
| PVSC-50 | 2023 | San Juan, PR | Mariana Bertoni | Jenny Nelson |
| PVSC-51 (WCPEC-8) | 2022 | Milan, Italy | Alessandra Scognamiglio (General Chair), Yuzuru Ueda and Seth Hubbard (Vice Chairs) | |
| PVSC-52 | 2024 | Seattle, WA | Arno Smets | Chris Xixiang Xu |
| PVSC-53 | 2025 | Montreal, Canada (7th World Conference) | Tyler Grassman | |