President's Message
I think it was the 1970s when I first realized that it was no longer possible to buy a television set that was made in America.
As time went on, I began to notice other products that had suffered a similar fate: stereo equipment, digital cameras, and small appliances immediately come to mind. I’m sure you could add to the list.
And I realized this: Whoever owns the technology owns the industry.
We at Natcore are determined that the solar industry will not go the way of the transistor radio. For that reason, much of our time is spent in developing and protecting our solar technology. We are determined that the solar industry will be based on our home soil.
We’ll soon convene a series of meetings with our scientific brain trust, whom we believe are the greatest solar scientists in the world today. This distinguished cadre includes:
Dr. Dennis Flood, Natcore co-founder and Chief Technology Officer. A NASA veteran, with more than 30 years’ experience in developing solar cell and array technology for both space and terrestrial applications.
Dr. Andy Barron, Natcore co-founder. The Charles W. Duncan, Jr.-Welch Chair of Chemistry and Professor of Materials Science at Rice University, as well as a visiting Professor at the University of Wales.
Dr. David Levy, Natcore Director of Research & Technology. A Chemical Engineering PhD, with a minor in Electrical Engineering, from MIT, then 20 years as a research scientist at Eastman Kodak.
Dr. Daniele Margadonna, Chairman, Natcore advisory board. Chief Technology Officer of MX Group SpA in Villasanta, Italy. An international expert in the solar photovoltaic industry with extensive experience in the planning and construction of turnkey photovoltaic plants.
Dr. David Carlson, Natcore advisory board. Until his recent retirement, the chief scientist of BP Solar, for whom he managed future technology programs and the intellectual property system. He invented the amorphous silicon solar cell at RCA Laboratories
Our multitalented technicians—Ted Zubil, Rich Topel and Wendy Ahearn-- will participate, too. They’re an impressive bunch: they have 18 patents among them.
The meetings will be held at our Research and Development Center in Rochester, NY. Their purpose can be expressed in these questions: What are the strengths of our technology? What are the weaknesses? How can we maximize the strengths and fix the weaknesses? How can we most quickly move our technology from the lab to the production line?
Incidentally, we’ve finally consolidated all of our R&D work in Rochester. So there will be no more need for routine travel to university labs in Ohio, Arizona, and Texas. (Just to let you know how much money this will save us, we’re paying for Dr. Margadonna’s flight from Italy with airline miles accumulated from our past travel.)
In my next President’s message, I’ll report on the results of these meetings.
Sincerely,
Chuck Provini, President, CEO & Director
Win a few. Lose a few.
Only the long term counts.
AI
