 Natasha came to us over the summer last year as an undergraduate research student and she since stayed on as a graduate research student doing a PhD with her. I found out that ASU had the solar power labs and was doing research in the area together with the fact that ASU has the largest installed capacity of any university in the world when it comes to solar PV. I decided that this was the place I wanted to do my research. Natasha started out with us doing research on to making higher-efficiency silicon solar cells so it was really important I think that Natasha was able to look at not only the device physics inside the laboratory but also take those devices out into the real world and look at how they're performing on the top of the car parks, on top of the buildings. The energy demand is increasing at a rapid pace. If we could supply that extra energy demand that's going to be required in the future with clean renewable energy that is a step forward. In order to do that we're going to have to create a lot more energy generation systems and the most promising way to do that is with photovoltaics. Sunlight is an resource for resource, there's huge amounts of it and what we need is ways that we can convert that sunlight into electricity efficiently and cheaply. With solar energy it's clean and renewable, we'll be able to displace fossil fuels which are already running short and are polluting our environment. In the US we don't think about electricity, it's always there, it's always on but in most of the world that's not really the case and so what we'd like to see is the rest of the world be able to get the same sort of benefits from electricity and part of a modern society that we have in the US. Technology is changing and we need to come up with better ways to model these solar cells. She's looking at ways, how can we take the current silicon solar cells which are most of the industry at the moment and make them just a bit better. So making those better makes them available to more people, more people can afford them so that they have more access to the electricity. For me to be successful at my research I feel like I need some kind of different outlets. I have also been an athlete at ASU for the past four and a half years. She's very committed, she's highly disciplined, she understands that improving in our sport is just about what you do in practice, whether it's recovery, diet, you know, just the sleeping patterns, strengthening, physio work, making sure you keep your body healthy, Natasha's really embodied that. Prodilligence to the process of improving is really remarkable. Training myself hard mentally when I'm doing my research and training myself hard physically when I'm out there running so I feel like it really provides a good balance. You have to be very committed, you have to be very disciplined and as strange as it sounds you have to find some joy in the monotony of it. It's really about being able to endure and being consistent over a long period of time through the good and the bad and finding a way to stay positive in that process and I think that skill set that you develop through distance running is really applicable into every area of your life. Being a runner and being outdoors all the time I definitely appreciate the clean environment and it's something that's become a passion of mine. Natasha graduated as an undergrad at the 4.0 through our Barrett Honors College in Sustainability and Mechanical Engineering. Those are two pretty rigorous academic programs and she also ran upwards of 80-90 miles a week practiced every day at 5.30 in the morning so I think for successful people they find a way. Students involved in our research is just really important. There's nothing like having a dedicated enthusiastic student in our lab they can usually take ideas and they can really work on that and take it from the lab from just an idea from a concept to being an actual physical device. I really want to see the health of the environment be maintained while at the same time meeting our energy demand.