Professor of Applied Photovoltaics at Loughborough University  Leicester, United Kingdom

Ralph Gottschalg  (prof) was born and educated in Karlsruhe, Germany where he obtained a Diplom in Physics from the University Karlsruhe, Germany. This was followed by a MSc in Renewable Energy Systems Technology at Loughborough University. Professor Gottschalg worked as a research engineer in the energy department of the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovations Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany, before joining the Centre for Renewable Energy Systems Technology (CREST) in 1996 to do a PhD on environmental effects on the performance of photovoltaic devices. He spent his post-doctoral career at Loughborough University where he held a variety of posts, ultimately being offered a chair of Applied Photovoltaics. He is the head of the Energy Division of the School of Electronic, Electrical and Systems Engineering. His research interests are the performance of photovoltaics in different climates. This involves the performance characterisation, monitoring and modelling of performance relevant effects as well as the development of innovative measurement procedures. He is active in the evaluation of durability and reliability of devices in different environments. He represents the UK in the world standards bodies such as IEC and CENELEC and participates in the world PV quality assurance forum which was initiated by the IEC-TC82.