Scientia Prof Xiaojing Hao obtained her PhD in the School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering of UNSW in 2010, and currently the full Professor (tenured), ARC Laureate Fellow at UNSW. Prof Hao has focused her research on low-cost, high-efficiency thin film solar cells and tandem solar cells for nineteen years, researching on various energy materials, initially using Si, and then earth-abundant compound semiconductor materials such as chalcogenides and perovskite for both solar photovoltaic and solar fuel applications. Prof Hao now leads a strong group in the above areas, achieving a number of efficiency records on several emerging thin film solar cells. Prof Hao has published >220 peer-reviewed journal papers, including publications in Nature Energy, Nature Photonics, Energy and Environmental Science, with several awards for her research excellence. She was the recipient of Inaugural Australian Renewable Energy Agency Postdoc Fellow, previous ARC DECRA, ARC Future Fellow, inaugural Sciential Fellow at UNSW. She was awarded a number of prestigious national prizes, including 2020 Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science: Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year, 2021 Australian Academy of Science Pawsey Medal. She was elected to Fellow of ATSE in 2022 and Fellow of AAS in 2025.