Abstract
Thermoelectrics are being used for applications such as heating and cooling car seats. New applications include personal air conditioning, improving the gas mileage of automobiles, and solar thermal power generation. Learn about some of these new applications, and new materials being designed to achieve better efficiency in these applications. Nanoparticles in materials are being used to improve the performance of thermoelectrics.
Biography
John Bowers holds the Fred Kavli Chair in Nanotechnology, and is the Director of the Institute for Energy Efficiency and a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University and worked for AT&T Bell Laboratories and Honeywell before joining UC Santa Barbara. Bowers is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a fellow of the IEEE, OSA and the American Physical Society, and a recipient of the OSA Holonyak Prize, the IEEE LEOS William Streifer Award and the South Coast Business and Technology Entrepreneur of the Year Award. He has published eight book chapters, 450 journal papers, 700 conference papers and has received 52 patents. He and coworkers received the EE Times Annual Creativity in Electronics (ACE) Award for Most Promising Technology for the hybrid silicon laser in 2007.