Contact Information
3217 Bell Engineering Center
Room 3118
Fayetteville, AR 72701
Email: jgilboy@uark.edu
Phone: (479) 575-5444

Education

• B.S. Applied and Engineering Science: Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania (2006)
• M.S. Microelectronics-Photonics: University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas (in progress)

Experience

• 2008 – present: Research Assistant: Optoelectronics Laboratory, Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas
• 2006 – 2007: Project Coordinator (Civil engineering): CECO Associates, Consulting Engineers, Scranton, Pennsylvania

Current Research
Given Earth’s depleted resources and increasing global energy consumption, a lot of research has recently begun on low-cost energy technology. To this end, there has been considerable effort to produce low cost photovoltaic cells that can be implemented by the general consumer with a modest investment and a reasonable payback period.

Our focus is on polymer-nanoparticle-nanowire composite devices for use in photovoltaic solar cells. The present focus is on coupling of ZnO nanowires with CdSe/ZnS core/shell nanoparticles and ZnO nanowire growth parameter optimization. Some optoelectronic properties of ZnO nanowires, core/shell nanoparticles and the polymers have already been characterized.

Goals
Particular attention will be placed on packaging these polymer-based composites for device fabrication in order to make them reliable and producible at a low cost. The packaging of polymer devices is a recent development and will require significant research. An additional goal is growth of ZnO thin films by various methods.