6th Solvay~COPE Symposium on Organic Electronics

The 6th Solvay~COPE Symposium on Organic Electronics took place on May 10-11, 2012 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  The two-day event gathered a collection of academic and corporate representatives working in the field of organic materials and devices to discuss the latest research coming out of the lab and the newest product developments in emerging markets like printed electronics, photovoltaics, and organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) for displays and lighting. 

Plextronics Inc., an international technology company that specializes in printed solar, lighting and other electronics and headquartered in Pittsburgh served as host and organized the event along with Solvay and the Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics (COPE) at Georgia Tech. 

On the evening of May 9th Plextronics invited all symposium participants to a pre-conference reception coupled with laboratory tours of their facilities.  Attendees got a jump-start on networking with their peers, while getting a first-hand look at some of the equipment where Plextronics develops their suite of products that were on display during the reception.  

The next morning, symposium attendees arrived at the Sheraton Station Square hotel in downtown Pittsburgh, where the technical portion of the symposium took place.  The day started with welcoming addresses from Bernard Kippelen (Director of the Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics at Georgia Tech), Pierre Barthélemy (Solvay, Senior Vice President – Organic Electronics), and Andrew Hannah (CEO, Plextronics).

During day one attendees heard presentations from Richard McCullough (Carnegie Mellon University), Kieran Reynolds (Eight19), Marie-Beatrice Madec (Solvay Interox), Zhenan Bao (Stanford University), Mike Hack (Universal Display Corporation), Gopalan Rajeswaran (Moser Baer Technologies), Natalie Stingelin (Imperial College London), Christer Karlsson (Thin Film Electronics), John Reynolds (Georgia Tech), and Antonio Facchetti (Polyera). 

The day was capped with researchers and graduate students from Carnegie Mellon University, University of Pittsburgh, Georgia Tech, and Solvay presenting their latest research during the traditional poster session and reception.

Day two featured presentations from David Bucknall (Georgia Tech), Vincent Thulliez (Solvay), Andrew Hannah (Plextronics), Larry Hough (Rhodia: Member of the Solvay Group), and Tobin Marks (Northwestern University).  The day concluded with a panel discussion where industry speakers fielded questions from attendees and highlighted by discussion about the future prospects for the industry. 

Stay tuned for announcements on next year’s symposium at http://www.cope.gatech.edu or on twitter @gtcope