David Mitzi

Simon Family Distinguished Professor

David Mitzi received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Engineering Physics from Princeton University in 1985 and his Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Stanford University in 1990.  Prior to joining the faculty at Duke in 2014, Dr. Mitzi spent 23 years at IBM’s T.J. Watson Research Center, where his focus was on the search for and application of new electronic materials, including organic-inorganic perovskites and inorganic materials for photovoltaic, LED, transistor and memory applications.  For his final five years at IBM, he served as manager for the Photovoltaic Science and Technology Department, where he initiated and managed a multi-company program to develop a low-cost, high-throughput approach to deposit thin-film chalcogenide-based absorber layers for high-efficiency solar cells. Dr. Mitzi’s current research interests involve making emerging photovoltaic materials more effective, cost-efficient and competitive for the energy market. He holds a number of patents, and has authored or coauthored more than 200 papers and book chapters.

Appointments and Affiliations

• Simon Family Distinguished Professor
• Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science
• Professor of Chemistry
• Faculty Network Member of The Energy Initiative

Contact Information

• Office Location: 363 Gross Hall, Box 90300, Durham, NC 27708
• Office Phone: (919) 660-5356
• Email Address: david.mitzi@duke.edu
• Websites:
  • Google Scholar - David B. Mitzi
  • Mitzi group website

Education

• Ph.D. Stanford University, 1990
• B.S. Princeton University, 1985

Research Interests

Making emerging photovoltaic materials more effective, cost-efficient and competitive for the energy market.

Awards, Honors, and Distinctions

• ACS Award in the Chemistry of Materials. American Chemical Society. 2020
• Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researcher. Clarivate Analytics. 2019
• Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researcher. Clarivate Analytics. 2018
• MRS Fellow. Materials Research Society. 2018

Courses Taught

• ME 391: Undergraduate Projects in Mechanical Engineering
• ME 394: Engineering Undergraduate Fellows Projects
• ME 491: Special Projects in Mechanical Engineering
• ME 493: Engineering Undergraduate Fellows Projects
• ME 516: Thin-Film Photovoltaic Technology
• ME 555: Advanced Topics in Mechanical Engineering
• ME 591: Research Independent Study in Mechanical Engineering or Material Science
• ME 592: Research Independent Study in Mechanical Engineering or Material Science
• MSEG 591: Independent Study

In the News

• Six Duke Engineers Among Global Highly Cited (Nov 20, 2019 | Pratt School of Engineering )
• Global List of Highly Cited Puts Duke in Top Ten (Nov 19, 2019)
• Professors, Alumna Honored by American Chemical Society (Aug 27, 2019)
• Duke Faculty Plentiful On ‘Highly Cited’ List (Nov 27, 2018)
• Supercomputer Predicts Optical and Thermal Properties of Complex Hybrid Materials (Oct 8, 2018 | Pratt School of Engineering)
• Pratt Researchers Join National Effort to Unlock New Energy Technologies (Aug 23, 2018 | Pratt School of Engineering)
• Duke Engineers Join National Center on Emerging Energy Materials (Aug 21, 2018)
• Mitzi Elected to Materials Research Society Fellows (Feb 10, 2018 | Pratt School of Engineering)
• Laser Evaporation Technology to Create New Solar Materials (Jan 3, 2018 | Pratt School of Engineering)
• Energy Initiative Awards Seven New Seed Grants (Apr 28, 2017)
• Duke Awards Distinguished Professorships, Inducts New Bass Society Members (May 5, 2016)
• Duke Initiative Brings a Lot of Energy to Research (May 7, 2015 | Duke Research Blog)
• Mitzi Awarded SunShot Initiative Funding to Improve Thin-Film Solar Cell Materials (Oct 23, 2014 | Pratt School of Engineering)
• David Mitzi: Harvesting More of the Sun’s Shine (Aug 18, 2014 | Pratt School of Engineering)

Representative Publications

• Jiang, T; Bai, Y; Zhang, P; Han, Q; Mitzi, DB; Therien, MJ, Electronic structure and photophysics of a supermolecular iron complex having a long MLCT-state lifetime and panchromatic absorption., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (2020) [10.1073/pnas.2009996117] [abs].
• Sun, J-P; McKeown Wessler, GC; Wang, T; Zhu, T; Blum, V; Mitzi, DB, Correction to Structural Tolerance Factor Approach to Defect-Resistant I2-II-IV-X4 Semiconductor Design, Chemistry of Materials, vol 32 no. 13 (2020), pp. 5925-5926 [10.1021/acs.chemmater.0c02346] [abs].
• Lu, H; Xiao, C; Song, R; Li, T; Maughan, AE; Levin, A; Brunecky, R; Berry, JJ; Mitzi, DB; Blum, V; Beard, MC, Highly Distorted Chiral Two-Dimensional Tin Iodide Perovskites for Spin Polarized Charge Transport., Journal of the American Chemical Society (2020) [10.1021/jacs.0c03899] [abs].
• Márquez, JA; Sun, JP; Stange, H; Ali, H; Choubrac, L; Schäfer, S; Hages, CJ; Leifer, K; Unold, T; Mitzi, DB; Mainz, R, High-temperature decomposition of Cu2BaSnS4with Sn loss reveals newly identified compound Cu2Ba3Sn2S8, Journal of Materials Chemistry A, vol 8 no. 22 (2020), pp. 11346-11353 [10.1039/d0ta02348e] [abs].
• Ye, F; Wu, H; Qin, M; Yang, S; Niu, G; Lu, X; Wang, J; Mitzi, DB; Choy, WCH, High-Quality MAPbBr3 Cuboid Film with Promising Optoelectronic Properties Prepared by a Hot Methylamine Precursor Approach., Acs Applied Materials & Interfaces, vol 12 no. 21 (2020), pp. 24498-24504 [10.1021/acsami.0c04516] [abs].