Fostering Innovation Through Research

In an interaction with People Matters, Professor Edward (Ted) Sargent, the Vice-President at the University of Toronto, talks about the tech innovations and the future of work, and how the university is preparing the next generation of leaders.

- Suparna Chawla Bhasin

Professor Edward (Ted) Sargent is the Vice-President and a Professor in the Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto (U of T).

Through his work both as a scholar and vice-dean, research in the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, Professor Sargent has accumulated extensive experience in developing and enhancing global research networks involving both academic and industrial partners. The University of Toronto is a global institution with one-quarter of its student body international, coming from more than 168 countries including India.

You are an academic, entrepreneur, author and a fellow at many institutes. Tell us how you ventured into this area of nanotechnology that led to your book, The Dance of the Molecules?

I began my academic career working with semiconductor lasers for optical fiber communications -- the long-distance backbone of the Internet. I was fascinated by how quantum mechanical effects could be used to make bright, spectrally-pure sources of light for communications. Later I became fascinated with what chemists had started doing in the early 2000s –making semiconductors as bright and as promising as traditional laser materials, but doing so near room temperature in the liquid phase. I translated my research over to working with these new nanomaterials that could be produced, at low cost, in vast quantities.

What is the focus of your research at the moment?

I work with liquid-processed semiconductors to make better and more cost-effective devices for renewable energy. This includes making solar cells that better capture the full spectrum of light from the sun.