Sarah Kurtz

Sarah Kurtz is a Professor at the University of California Merced. She obtained her PhD in 1985 from Harvard University. She worked at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, in Golden, CO, from 1985 to 2017. She is known for her contributions to developing multijunction, GaInP/GaAs solar cells and leading efforts on PV performance and reliability. Her work has been recognized with a jointly received Dan David Prize in 2007, the Cherry Award in 2012, C3E Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016, and induction into the National Academy of Engineering in 2020. At the University of California Merced she is working both to help the university grow and to support the Energy Transition through a variety of studies. The largest project has been a study on the role of long-duration energy storage in reaching California’s energy goals, funded by the California Energy Commission She also is studying perovskite modules, agrivoltaics, and solar canals.