Piers Barnes

Piers Barnes is an Assistant Professor in Experimental Solid State Physics at the Department of Physics, Imperial College London. His research focuses on charge carrier behavior in semiconducting materials, particularly in solar cells and energy conversion systems. He is affiliated with the Centre for Processable Electronics, Experimental Solid State Physics Group, and The Matter Community.

His academic journey includes a PhD from the University of Bristol (1998–2003) and postdoctoral work at CSIRO Australia (2004–2007). He joined Imperial College in 2007, later securing an EPSRC Career Acceleration Fellowship (2011) to establish his research group. His work emphasizes device simulation, transient optoelectronic measurements, and ion migration in perovskite materials.

Key research areas include energy loss mechanisms in photovoltaic systems, ionic transport in hybrid perovskites, and stability of solar cells. Barnes has contributed to open-source tools like the DRIFTFUSION MATLAB code for solar cell simulation. His group collaborates internationally, addressing challenges in perovskite physics and optoelectronic device design.

Scientific awards include the EPSRC Career Acceleration Fellowship and mentoring students who have won the Solid State Physics Thesis Prize (Aurelien, Davide). His work spans 50+ peer-reviewed articles, with a focus on interdisciplinary approaches to solar energy and materials science.