KSC Workshop 2025
April 24, 2024
PhD student Luis Huerta wins the best poster prize during the KSC Workshop 2025
Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
Nov, 2022
Named Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), the largest organization in Europe for advancing the chemical sciences; one of the most prestigious scientific bodies in the world.
OMEGALAB's image was selected as one of Nature's best science images of 2020!
22/12/20
OMEGALAB's image, the 'Power bubble' was selected as one of Nature's best science images of 2020 Congrats Daniel Corzo and Eloise Bihar for the photo idea and photo capture by Anastasia Serin.
OMEGALAB Retreat 2021!
31/03/21-02/04/21
OMEGALAB held its 3rd annual retreat filled with wonderful talks, workshop training, values evaluation. Many thanks to Inclusive Innovation who organized and facilitated our event.
Derya Baran has joined the Wiley editorial board!
And more big news for Advanced Materials Interfaces! Derya Baran has joined the Wiley editorial board! Her expertise on photovoltaic devices and (printed) electronics will be a great addition to the journal. #WomenInSTEM #WomeninEngineering
Prof.Derya Baran has been appointed as the Co-Chair for WEP 2022
02/01/2022
WEP 2022 will run from January 9-20 under the theme #RESILIENCE.. Prof.Derya Baran has been appointed as the Co-Chair for WEP 2022.
Prof Baran serves as Specialty Chief Editor in Frontier In Electronics Journal
26 /08/20
Prof Derya Baran serves as a Specialty Editor in the new journal Frontier in Electronics for flexible electronics.
Derya Baran first to represent Saudi institution in Global Young Academy
07/07/20
Prof Derya Baran has been selected as a new member of the Global Young Academy , the first member to represent a Saudi Arabian institution.
OMEGA Members featured in the KSC News Issue.
13/02/20
Featured in the the KAUST Solar Center News Issue Daniel Corzo and Eloise Bihar. In this issue, Daniel reports his recent experience as a SciCafe panelist at the KAUST School where he answered student's questions about his research field and provided demonstrations and interactive activities for them.
Jules Bertrandie Wins Best Poster!
12/02/20
Congratulations to PhD student Jules Bertrandie of OMEGALab, for being awarded the best poster award at the 2020 KAUST Solar Conference 2020!
CEO of Iyris, Derya Baran as a guest panelist during KAUST Enterpreneurship Bootcamp
09/09/19
Prof and CEO of Iyris, Derya Baran shares her experience and success to entrepreneurs at the Entrepreneurship WorldCup bootcamp held at KAUST.
Congrats Dr. Xin Song!
23/10/19
Congratulations to Xin Song for successfully defending his PhD today, titled "Performance Evolution of Organic Solar Cells Using Nonfullerene Fused-Ring Electron Acceptors". Xin is our group's first PhD graduate! All the best in your future research endeavors!
Undergraduate student Waleed Koubeisi from local University KAU joins us for his Summer internship
08/05/19
Welcome to the OMEGA Group Waleed Koubeisi! Waleed is an undergrad student in his last year at KAU University, who will be with us for the next 4 months, working on DC-DC converters for applications in solar energy harvesting.
Welcome, Visiting Student Angel Sousa from Brazil!
23/06/19
A warm welcome to VSRP student Angel Sousa who joined us in Saudi Arabia, all the way from Brazil. She completed her undergraduate degree in Material Science from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte - UFRN and now will be with us for the next 6 months. with our Thermoelectrics team completing her master's thesis project.
Invited Guest Speaker at ICoPP 2019
22-25/05/19
Professor Derya Baran attends the “International Conference on Photocatalysis and Photoenergy (ICoPP 2019)” in Incheon, Korea as an invited speaker. She will discuss photocurrent conversion in nonfullerene solar cells.
Congrats Seyoung Kee!
15/04/19
Congratulations to Post Doc Seyoung Kee for his recent paper on PEDOT/ionic liquid based thermoelectrics, titled “Highly Stretchable and Air-Stable PEDOT:PSS/Ionic Liquid Composites for Efficient Organic Thermoelectrics”.
Congrats on the Nature Review Paper!
07/03/19
A well-deserved cake celebration for OMEGALAB Post-Doctoral Fellow Nicola Gasparini for his latest Review in Nature Review Materials, examining the role of the third component in ternary organic solar cells. Well done to all involved (Derya Baran, Iain McCulloch and Alberto Salleo). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41578-019-0093-4
‘Innovators Under 35 for the MENA region’
Congratulations on behalf of our entire group to our very own PI Dr. Derya Baran for being recognized by MIT Technology Review as one as one of the ‘Innovators Under 35 for the MENA region’! https://www.kaust.edu.sa/en/news/kaust-assistant-professor-derya-baran-makes-list-of-innovators-under-35-in-the-mena-region …
Our 2nd Annual OMEGALab Academic Retreat!
30-31/01/19
We held our 2nd Annual Academic Retreat recently filled with amazing talks, thoughtful discussions and team building exercises. A wonderful event and opportunity to reflect on our personal/ group goals, accomplishments & evaluation. Thanks to our PI DeryaBaranB for organizing the event for us! Great way to start off the year!
Iyris Team Featured in the KAUST Official News Page
14/11/18
“Turning windows into solar panels”
https://www.kaust.edu.sa/en/news/turning-windows-into-solar-panels
Iyris Team Among the Top 500 deeptech startups
30/10/18
Iyris Solar have been selected as one of Hello Tomorrow Top 500 deeptech startups from over 4,500 applications worldwide. Well Done!
OMEGA Lab’s Research Featured in the KAUST Discovery
15/10/18
OMEGA Lab was featured in last month's KAUST Discovery Research Highlights. For more details visit https://discovery.kaust.edu.sa/en/article/698/basking-in-a-quantum-efficiency-glow
2nd Annual International Dinner Party
09/09/18
Our Growing OMEGA lab Family! This weekend we had our 2nd annual international/multicultural Omegalab dinner and bbq hosted by our PI Derya Baran . Overall a lovely evening with great food and great people.
Nicola Gasparini gives an invited talk of Ternary Solar Cells
07/7/18
Master of ternary solar cells, Post Doc Nicola Gasaparini, recently gave his first invited talk at ISOEMD with great scientists from Korea, Sweden, China, Ethiopia and KAUST in South Korea.
All the Best Sky!
19/7/18
Sky MacPhee, a Master student from University of Strathclyde spent a year with us, and following a recent visit by their supervisor Sarah Walker, Sky along with her three other peers are now returning home to complete their degrees. Wish them every success in the future and hope to welcome them again to KAUST.
Dr.Bob Schroeder KSC Seminar
11/4/17
It was a pleasure to host Prof.Schroeder from Queen Mary University of London who provided an informative KSC seminar titled "Science fiction or organic semiconductor design"?
A warm welcome to our Filip Anies
8/7/17
A warm welcome to Masters student Filip Anies from Imperial College of London.
Filip Anies is a summer internship student in our lab who was born and raised in Sweden. He moved to U.K three years ago to study Chemistry at Imperial College of London. In his time with our group, he aims to reach a better understanding of the degradation processes of non-fullerene acceptors for bulk heterojunction solar cells. Besides Chemistry he's passionate about fencing, and he hopes to try many new sports during his stay at KAUST
OMEGA Lab Welcomes PhD Student Xin Song
03/16/17
The OMEGA Lab is excited to welcome Xin Song as our first PhD student! Xin studied chemistry at the College of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, Nanjing Tech University, where he was awarded his B.Sc. in 2013. He then went on to complete his Masters at Institute of Advanced Materials (IAM), Nanjing Tech Univeristy in 2016, with a specialty in Organic Functional Materials and Devices. In recognition of his academic achievements during his Masters, Xin was awarded the National Prize for Outstanding Graduating Dissertation and Excellent Work.
BCG V60 Innovators Award
Jan 19, 2024
Awarded the BCG V60 Innovators Award for driving sustainability forward with innovation and strategic action in the Middle East
Prof. Derya Baran selected as c&en’s Talented 12 young scientist!
30/08/2021
C&EN selects Prof. Derya Barand as of the Talented 12 scientists!
Congrats Dr. Azim Haque!
10/08/20
A BIG congratulations to Dr. Azim Haque, who has successfully completed his doctorate degree! On behalf of the entire Omegalab team, we wish you all the best in your future career and project! Well Done !
3rd Annual OMEGALAB Retreat
25/06/20
On 25th June Omeglab held its 3rd Annual OMEGALAB Retreat, however, this time virtually, with current and prospective members! A full day planned with fun trivia, zoom games, and of course SCIENCE!
We also had a meme contest and the winning meme went to Luis Hernandez !
3rd Annual OMEGA BBQ!
21/09/19
Recently we enjoyed our 3rd Annual OMEGALAB InternationalInternational Dinner and BBQ hosted by our PI Derya Baran. This multicultural potluck dinner has become our group tradition to welcome new members to the OMEGALAB family and say good-bye to those leaving.
Congrats Dr.Song!
23/10/1019
Congratulations to Xin Song for successfully defending his PhD today, titled "Performance Evolution of Organic Solar Cells Using Nonfullerene Fused-Ring Electron Acceptors". Xin is our group's first PhD graduate! All the best in your future research endeavors!
Welcome Wasim!
09/01/19
Ye Liu's doctoral research was related to nanocarbon based thermoelectrics and sensors. He completed his PhD in Material Science and Engineering from TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany, 2018.His research interests are nanocarbons, organic semiconductors, thermoelectrics, doping, transport and gas-/bio-sensors.
Congratulations Khulud Almasabi!
05/08/19
Many many congratulations to our group's very first graduate who successfully completed her master's defence last week. Well done Khulud Almasabi!
A Hearty Welcome to our Newest Post-Doc Anirudh Sharma
23/07/19
A hearty welcome to Post-Doc Anirudh Sharma to OMEGALAB lab group. Anirudh studied Nanotechnology Flinders University in South Australia and has conducted his postdoc research at University of South Australia and University of Bordeaux before joining the KAUST Solar Center and OMEGA family. Within the OMEGALAB he will be focusing mainly on organic photovoltaic solar cells.
New Master’s Student, Fahad Bokhari
21/05/19
New Masters Student Fahad Bokhari joins the OMEGA Lab! Fahad studied Material Science and Engineering at Purdue University & graduated in May of 2018 as a KGSP student. Recently, Fahad joined our group. His research focus will focus on on 3D printing of organic electronics.
Welcome Mohamad!
09/04/19
A warm welcome to Mohamad Abdelkhalik from KIT Karlsruhe LTI to the OMEGA Group and KAUST Solar Center. Mohamad will be with us for the next 6 months and during his internship in our group he will mainly focus on modeling and fabrication of electrodes for transparent solar cell applications.
Congrats Daniel on your fist paper!
03/04/19
Congrats to Daniel Corzo on his first-author paper titled "Digital Inkjet Printing of High-Efficiency Large-Area Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells", & the whole team involved, great work! We're loving the local reference of a marine turtle shaped solar cell to show free-form printing capabilities.
Well Done Masarah!
18/02/19
Many congratulations to our previous SRSI Student Masarah Ahmedhussain, who has recently won many awards at the Ibdaa competition! Kingdom’s largest pre-college science & engineering competition that empowers the next generation of scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs. won a big award and two special awards. She won 4th place in Saudi Arabia, a special national award from ExxonMobil, and a special international award from Yale University!
Escape Room Fun in Jeddah!
13/12/18
Our group enjoyed a nice trip to the Jeddah Escape Hotel Room, which challenges the group’s solving and team working skills. Both groups managed to successfully escape the room by solving the riddles and clues to exit the room. It was a fun and enjoyable evening out with the group.
Iyris Wins 3rd Place in the Istanbul Startup 2018
26/10/18
Recently Derya Baran from the Iyris team participated in the Istanbul Statup 2018 competition and they finished third overall! Great Work!
Iyris Team Wins TAQADAM Finals
13/09/18
Born out of the Omega Lab, the Iyris company is a startup comprising of Professor Derya Baran, Nicola Gasparini, Joel Troughton and Daniel Bryant. The Iyris company aim to generate electricity from windows using new transparent photovoltaic technologies.
Recently, the Iyris Team won the TAQADAM finals held at KAUST!
Group Dinner at KAEC!
15/07/18
OMEGA Lab enjoyed a lovely dinner and evening at a nearby city called KAEC.
Welcome Stefan!
30/9/18
Welcome Stefan Schlisske! Our new visiting student who joined us from KIT Karlsruhe, Germany. His research interests include organic electronics and improving the printing of functional materials by controlling the physical and chemical surface properties of substrates.
12/05/17
Diego obtained his B.Sc. in Nanotechnology and Molecular Engineering at Universidad de las Americas Puebla in Mexico. His previous work includes the design of biomolecular devices for the iGEM 2014 and BIOMOD 2015 competitions, mainly synthesizing materials to be used as scaffolds or structural support. He also worked as an intern at University of Notre Dame producing photoactive nanostructured films for wastewater treatment where he become more interested in sustainable technologies.
All the best and glad to have you join the team.
Goodbye to SRSI Student Masarah Ahmedhussain!
05/08/18
Masarah Ahmedhussain was a SRSI student who joined our group during the summer for her internship. During her short time here she worked with mentor Xin Song, and by the end of her internship Masarah managed to make >10% efficiency solar cell devices! Well done and all the best in the future!
Group Dinner at Thuwal
21/02/18
OMEGA Lab team member visit neighboring town Thuwal, with guest visitor Dr.Han Woo Young, for a nice traditional evening dinner!
Paper by PI Derya Baran Ranked #2 for the Most Read Article of the Month
01/17/18
Well Done! The "Review-Organic Materials for Thermoelectric Energy Generation” published in the ECS Journal of Solid State Science and technology by Omega PI Derya Baran in collaboration with Queen Mary University of London and Swansea University was ranked #2 for the most read article last month.
Symposium on Recent Advances on Organic/Hybrid Electronics in Istanbul
02/2/18
Many OMEGA Lab members presents their latest research at the Symposium on Recent Advances on Organic/Hybrid Electronics.
Top Three Women Entrepreneurs developing Tech brands in the Middle East
Aug 19, 2023
Named in the Top Three Women Entrepreneurs developing Tech brands in the Middle East by Forbes.
Prof Derya Baran joins as a new member for the editorial board in NatureCommunications Physics
13/07/20
Prof. Derya Baran has now joined the journal editorial board. With a wealth of expertise in organic electronics, solar cells and thermoelectrics, Derya will work with the team in expanding the energy materials representation in the journal.
A solar panel so thin and flexible it can rest on the surface of a soap bubble!
28/08/20
Post-doc Eloise Bihar and PhD Student Daniel Corzo develop ultra-thin and flexible fully ink-jet printed organic solarcells that could serve an alternative way to power novel electronic devices, such as medical patches.
https://discovery.kaust.edu.sa/en/article/1016/thin-skinned-solar-panels-printed-with-inkjet
Our recent research work featured in the KAUST Discovery Highlights
31/07/19
Our recent discovery research highlights featuring PhD student Xin Song's work on organic solarcells made from solution processed techniques in air using small amount of material. https://discovery.kaust.edu.sa/en/article/839/third-step-boosts-solar-cell-performance.
Prof Derya Baran at the World Economic Forum
27/07/19
Prof. Derya Baran gave a presentation on her research on transparent solar cells on World Economic Forum's (WEF) Meeting of the New Champions in Dalian, China.
Indian Cuisine Night in Jeddah
01/05/19
We had a lovely lab group dinner group in Jeddah, SaudiArabia to welcome new visiting interns and celebrate the recent papers in our group. We opted for some Indian cuisine at Asha’s Middle East restaurant and it was a hit! Great food and great company!
Post Doc Ye Liu Joins OMEGALab
10/14/19
Ye Liu's doctoral research was related to nanocarbon based thermoelectrics and sensors. He completed his PhD in Material Science and Engineering from TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany, 2018.His research interests are nanocarbons, organic semiconductors, thermoelectrics, doping, transport and gas-/bio-sensors.
New Faces Join the OMEGALAB Group!
22/07/19
OMEGALAB is delighted to host Material Science and Engineering student Emily Alexandre from Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil for a 6-month internship in our lab group. She will be working on Inkjet Printing with PhD student Daniel Corzo, completing her undergraduate degree.
e-MRS Spring Meeting 2019
27-31/05/19
Many members of the OMEGALAB attend the e-MRS 2019 Spring Meeting in Nice, France and present their current work during the talks and poster sessions.
Luis Torres Joins OMEGA Group for his internship
01/05/19
Welcome to Luis Torres, our second visiting intern this month! He completed his undergrad in Unam University in Mexico and previously, worked University of Erlangen-Nurembergand ZAEBayern on solar cells in Germany. Within our group, he will focus on interface engineering of organic/perovskite tandem.
KSC Poster Session
12/02/19
PhD students, Sri Paleti, Xin Song and Khulud Almasabi present their research projects at the 2019 KAUST Solar Conference poster session.
A Lovely Dinner at the Leila Restaurant in Jeddah
13/12/18
The Omega Lab Team Members enjoyed a lovely evening at Leila Restaurant in Jeddah last week reminiscing over the past year and accomplishments. Great way to end the year, with great food and great company!
PI Derya Baran featured in the Arab News
04/11/18
OMEGA Lab PI and co-founder of Iyris, Derya Baran’s performance for Iyris featured in Arab News!
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1398861/corporate-news
Professor Derya Baran Awarded Innovators Ander 35 Award
01/10/18
OMEGA Lab PI Derya Baran was recently recognized as one of the top Innovators under 35 by MIT Technology Review at EmTechMENA in Dubai.
Inkjet Printed Turtles!
13/08/18
How cute are these! Did you know that a group of turtles is called a bale? Well this is a bale of inkjet printed solar cells fabricated by PhD student Daniel Corzo.
Dr.Derya Baran Gives a Talk at the Women in STEM event
27/03/18
“Women should take their emotional intelligence skills, which are there by nature, to their advantage. This is an important part of leadership,” - Dr. Derya Baran during her presentation for Women in Stem gathering.
Who says art cannot produce energy? Or that solar cells cannot be beautiful?
26/02/18
Beautiful inkjet printed solar cell by PhD student Daniel Corzo.
Daniel Corzo presents his work at the Bioelectronics Conference in Austria
16/3/18
PhD student Daniel Corzo presents his work on inkjet printed solar cells applied to bioelectronics at the Biolectronics Conference in Austria.
Derya Baran Gives an Invited Talk at DPG conference
03/04/18
Every year, DPG holds its Spring Meetings, which are regularly among the largest physics meetings in Europe. This year Prof Derya Baran will give an invited talk on the "Photocurrent Generation in Non-Fullerene Acceptors". For more information, see link. https://www.dpg-physik.de/dpg/gliederung/fv/cpp/Historie/berlin18.html
Nicola Gasparini’s Feature in the KSC newsletter
30/01/18
OMEGA lab Post-Doc Nicogaspa 's research highlights featured in the KSC semi-annual newsletter from KAUST Solar Center . Please make sure to check it out.
https://ksc.kaust.edu.sa/Documents/Newsletter/KSC-Newsletter_2018_01.pdf …
Recent Sci-Cafe
14/05/18
Recent Sci-cafe at KAUST featuring PI Derya Baran on the “City of the Future”.
OMEGA Lab in Turkey
04/02/18
OMEGA team members explore and enjoy some food before attending the Symposium on Recent Advances on Organic/Hybrid Electronics. Team outings are a great way to facilitate bonding among group members!
PI Derya Baran visits the National Korean Photovoltaic Annual Conference
11/8/17
PI Derya Baran visits the National Korean Photovoltaic Society Annual Conference. She then visited Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), along with researcher from Imperial College, London.
Visiting Student Rebecca Rowden Joins the OMEGA Lab
19/8/17
Becca is a Materials Science & Engineering student from Imperial College London, who grew up in Hong Kong, the UK and Dubai. Her summer internship project is focused on using an ellipsometer to better understand the optical properties of thin films used in devices. In her spare time, she enjoys swimming and photography, and has a new-found hobby of rock climbing with friends at KAUST!
Prof Derya Baran as an invited guest speaker at GRC
01/18/18
Prof Derya Baran is invited to provide a talk on Charge Separation in Organic Photovoltaic Devices, at the 2018 Gordon Research Conference: Electronic Processes in Organic Materials.
https://www.grc.org/electronic-processes-in-organic-materials-conference/2018/%E2%80%8B
KSC Seminar by Dr.Gerardo Hernadez Sosa
21/11/17
We would like to thank Dr.Gerardo Sosa from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, for providing a seminar on "Printed Organic Optoelectronic Devices: Processability, Performance and Sustainability".
OMEGALab is now on Twitter!
05/1/17
OMEGALab has offically just joined twitter! Please follow us @KAUST_OMEGALab to receive regular news updates about our lab group and research.
We will also post news and articles related to our field of study and also some other fun tidbits.
Dr. Derya Baran nominated to partake in the 67th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting
26/7/17
OMEGA Lab group's PI, Professor Dr.Derya Baran, was nominated by the Helmholtz Association, Germany, to attend the 67th Lindau Laureate Meeting (Chemistry). This annual event enables the next generation of leading scientists to meet with approx. 30 Nobel Laureates and fosters exchange amongst scientists of different generations, cultures, background and disciplines. The topic of the meeting rotates anually between physiology and medicine, physics and chemistry.
PhD student Danial Corzo wins 3rd place at the STEAM Innovation Challenge
23/10/17
Congratulation to PhD Student Danial Corzo for winning 3rd place at the STEAM Innovation Challenge, an intensive three-day weekend ideation event held at KAUST.
OMEGA Lab Established!
01/31/17
We are the OMEGA Group, a newly formed lab group located in Saudia Arabia at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. OMEGA stands for Organic Materials for Eneregy Applications.