Associate Professor Daniel Macdonald completed his PhD at the Australian National University (ANU) in 2001. He then joined the Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) as a research scientist, before returning to ANU, where he now leads a research team working on defects and impurities in silicon, advanced solar cell characterisation, and the development of low-cost solar-grade silicon solar cells. He has published over 200 papers in the field, and led research projects with total funding of more than A$10 million since 2005, including several large industry-supported projects.