Much of his current work is on the design of new semiconductors for energy applications, with a focus on photovoltaic and thermoelectric materials. Dr. Toberer is also committed to developing pedagogical approaches that enhance student learning; for these efforts he received the 2015 Cottrell Scholar Award. Prior to arriving in Colorado, he was a post-doc in Materials Science at Caltech. There, he worked with Jeff Snyder on thermoelectric materials, with a focus on new materials and structure-property relations. As a result of these efforts, Dr. Toberer received the 2011 International Thermoelectric Society Young Investigator Award. Dr. Toberer conducted his graduate work with Ram Seshadri at the University of California, Santa Barbara (2002–2006) on the synthesis of hierarchically porous materials.