Rate My Professor jenny Nelson

Professor Jenny Nelson is a Royal Society Research Professor of Physics in the Department of Physics at Imperial College London, where she has conducted research since 1989. She completed degrees in physics at the Universities of Cambridge and Bristol before joining Imperial. As Head of the Experimental Solid State Physics group, she leads efforts to characterize materials and physics underlying photovoltaic solar cells through physical models, simulations, and experiments. Her research specializations include molecular electronic materials, organic photovoltaic devices, semiconducting polymers, photocatalysis with organic semiconductors, and computational modeling of optoelectronic properties. Professor Nelson also heads the Mitigation Program of the Grantham Institute – Climate Change and the Environment, developing energy systems models to assess low-carbon energy technologies, industrial emissions policies, and the contributions of photovoltaic advances to reducing electricity generation's carbon footprint and enabling electrification in developing societies. She explores parallels between energy conversion in artificial photovoltaic systems and natural photosynthesis.

A highly cited author with over 71,000 citations and an h-index of 129, Professor Nelson has published more than 300 peer-reviewed articles, several book chapters, and the authoritative textbook The Physics of Solar Cells (Imperial College Press, 2003). Her influential work has advanced the fundamental understanding and rational design of organic semiconductor devices for renewable energy applications, attracting strong industry interest. Major awards and honors include election as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2014, the Royal Society Armourers’ & Brasiers’ Company Prize in 2012, the Institute of Physics Honorary Fellowship in 2021, the Institute of Physics Faraday Medal and Charles Chree Medal and Prize in 2016, the IEEE William R. Cherry Award in 2023, and the Royal Society of Chemistry Faraday Lectureship Prize in 2024. She has secured significant funding, such as a €2.4 million European Research Council Advanced Grant in 2024 to study plant photosynthesis for solar technology applications.