Massachusetts Institute of Technology / MIT Museum
Building N51 265 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139
Open Daily 10am – 5pm / Closed Major Holidays

Soap Box

Soap Box, held at the MIT Museum, is a series of salon-style, early-evening conversations with scientists and engineers who are making the news that really matters. Soap Box is a public forum for debate about important ideas and issues in science and technology.

Spring 2009 - What's the Latest in Solar Energy?

We are excited to announce our Soap Box series on Solar Energy. Speakers and dates are listed below. The program is also viewable through live webcast.

All Soap Box events are free and run from 6:00 - 7:30 p.m. Light refreshments will be served.

Upcoming:

Tues, 5/19

Luminescent Solar Concentrators Explained

Speaker: Marc Baldo - Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Learn more about the latest research being done with luminescent solar concentrators - inexpensive plates of glass or transparent plastic that concentrate sunlight without the need to track the sun across the sky.

Past:

Tues, 5/5

Next Generation Solar Cells – Lowering Costs, Improving Performance and Scale

Speaker: Tonio Buonassisi - Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering

Hear about the search for the best kinds of materials for making cheaper and more efficient solar cells in the future, either by incorporating materials that are so abundant that they could support a major boom in the industry or by cutting production costs for conventional solar cells.

Tues, 5/12

Nanoscale Engineering for High Performance Solar Cells

Speaker: Vladimir Bulovic - KDD Associate Professor of Communications and Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Nanotech opens up new possibilities for those working to more effectively exploit or manipulate light. Learn about quantum dots -- nanoparticles of semiconductor material that give off different colors of light depending on size -- and how these these hardy, brightly colored nano dots could be used to reinvent the light bulb.

MIT Museum Home Programs Soap Box

Soap Box programs are usually broadcast as a live webcast which you can access from the museum multimedia page on the evening of the event.

Archived videos of previous speakers are later viewable in an edited format on MIT World™.

If you have ideas for Soap Box, or are interested in sponsoring the series please let us know.