Vice President for Research
About
Ryne Raffaelle was appointed Vice President for Research and Associate Provost in July of 2011. A national leader in solar energy and nanotechnology development, Raffaelle previously served as director of the National Center for Photovoltaics, a component of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), from 2009 to 2011.
In that role he provided technical vision, strategic leadership, and personnel management and led efforts to advance solar energy technology development and general knowledge on the importance of renewable energy alternatives.
Prior to joining NREL, Raffaelle spent 10 years at RIT as a professor of physics and microsystems engineering. He built the NanoPower Research Laboratory into an international leader in solar cell and battery research and also served as the first academic director of the Golisano Institute for Sustainability.
Raffaelle has also served as a visiting scientist with NASA-Glenn Research Center and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and as an associate professor of physics and space sciences at Florida Institute of Technology. He has a Ph.D. in physics from University of Missouri-Rolla, and bachelor of science and master of science degrees in physics from Southern Illinois University.
