Wahid Shams Kolahi

Who is Wahid Shams Kolahi?

Wahid Shams-Kolahi is a scientist and an electrical engineer who is known for his research in photovoltaic related technologies.

Dr. Shams-Kolahi was born in Arak, Iran in 1965. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering at University of Stuttgart and joined the graduate school of electrical engineering/electrophysics, led by Professor Werner H. Bloss. He worked under Professor Bloss with the Institute of Physical Electronics, IPE, and later joined the Hamakawa Lab of the Graduate School of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering Science, Osaka University, Japan, where he obtained his Masters degree in 1994 and his Ph.D. in 1997.

While at Hamakawa Lab, Wahid Shams-Kolahi conducted research on space made materials and their potential for applications such as the absorption layer of solar cells. The team at Hamakawa Lab led by Shams-Kolahi was chosen by the Spacelab Mission Endeavour project, a cooperation between NASA of the United States and the Japanese NASDA, to study the electrical and optical properties of SiAsTe amorphous- or chalcogenide semiconductors fabricated under microgravity in space as part of Endeavour mission STS-47.