Ian Lightcap graduated with a Bachelor's in Chemistry and Science Education from Bethel College and was a high school chemistry teacher in South Bend, IN when he began working on research projects during his time off in the summers. His summer research included surface analysis of semiconductors grown using molecular beam epitaxy, design of voltage multipliers, and chemical speciation of nuclear waste-contaminated soil from the Hanford Tank Superfund site. Enjoying the challenges and rewards of reseach, Ian decided to make the move from teaching high school to full-time research as a Ph.D. student. As a member of the Kamat Group at the University of Notre Dame, his work on graphene-nanoparticle composites has led to a number of significant contributions in the field of energy conversion. Selected works include graphene catalyst mats for semiconductor and metal nanoparticles, and CdSe quantum dot-graphene composites utilized for 3-dimensional sensitizer loading in solar cells.

Alex is a student at Penn Highschool in South Bend, IN. Alex has been working with several graduate students in the Kamat Lab, doing research into the dependence of QDSC efficiecy on cell area, and, most recently, on PbS as a sensitizer for QDSCs.

Raymond is an undergraduate Nanotechnology Engineering major (class of 2015) from the University of Waterloo. As of September 2012, he is on an 8 month coop work term with the Radiation Laboratory. He is originally from Hong Kong but grew up in Toronto, Canada. He is currently developing a high efficiency solid state solar cells with perovskite materials such as Ch₃NH₃PbI₃ and looking into the ultrafast exciton dynamics using femto and nano-second transient absorption systems.