General Lab Information

Priscilla Antunez

Assistant Director for Strategic Partnerships, CFN Management, Center for Functional Nanomaterials

Priscilla Antunez

Brookhaven National Laboratory

Center for Functional Nanomaterials
Bldg. 735
P.O. Box 5000
Upton, NY 11973-5000

(631) 344-6186
(626) 789-4100
 pantunez@bnl.gov

Assistant Director for Strategic Partnerships, Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) at Brookhaven National Lab

Dr. Priscilla Antunez leads partnerships with businesses, institutions, and agencies, while guiding researchers in the exploration of collaborations and funding opportunities for maximum impact. She also manages strategic communications and employee engagement, retention, and recruitment. In 2019 she detailed for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science to help manage their Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) proposal review process and has continued to work with researchers to strengthen their proposals and leverage DOE User Facilities like CFN.

Expertise | Education | Publications

Expertise

Previously, Dr. Antunez served as a Business Development Executive at Argonne National Lab (another DOE Lab) helping researchers protect their IP and develop strategies to maximize the impact of their work (with special emphasis on partnerships). Before joining Argonne Lab, Dr. Antunez worked at the IBM TJ Watson Research Center, where she published 9 papers, obtained 7 patents, and received Invention Plateau Awards in 2016 and 2017 for her work on solar cell devices. Dr. Antunez received a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Southern California, where she researched materials for solar cells. She also received a BS in chemistry from Cal Poly Pomona and majored in Industrial and Management Systems Engineering at the Universidad de Sonora.

  • Business development for research organizations
  • Project management
  • New materials development and process optimization for solar cell devices
  • Synthesis, deposition, and characterization of colloidal nanomaterials and semiconducting thin films

Education

  • Ph.D. Chemistry, University of Southern California. Solution-phase synthesis and deposition of earth-abundant metal chalcogenide semiconductors
  • B.S. Chemistry, Cal Poly Pomona
  • B.S. Industrial & Management Systems Engineering, Universidad de Sonora

Selected Publications

  • Antunez PD, Li S, Bishop DM, Farmer DB, Gershon TS, Baxter JB, Haight R (2018) Passivation and thickness control of highly efficient kesterite solar cells. Applied Physics Letters 113:033903. doi: 10.1063/1.5037093
  • Farmer DB, Antunez PD, Hopstaken M, Gunawan O, Han S-J (2018) Patching of Lattice Defects in Two-Dimensional Diffusion Barriers. ACS Applied Nano Materials 1:3068–3074. doi: 10.1021/acsanm.8b00619
  • Antunez PD, Bishop DM, Luo Y, Haight R (2017) Efficient kesterite solar cells with high open-circuit voltage for applications in powering distributed devices. Nature Energy 2:884–890. doi: 10.1038/s41560-017-0028-5
  • Antunez PD, Bishop DM, Lee YS, Gokmen T, Gunawan O, Gershon TS, Todorov TK, Singh S, Haight R (2017) Back Contact Engineering for Increased Performance in Kesterite Solar Cells. Advanced Energy Materials 7:1602585. doi: 10.1002/aenm.201602585
  • Gershon T, Lee YS, Antunez P, Mankad R, Singh S, Bishop D, Gunawan O, Hopstaken M, Haight R (2016) Photovoltaic Materials and Devices Based on the Alloyed Kesterite Absorber (AgxCu1-x)2ZnSnSe4. Advanced Energy Materials 6:1502468. doi: 10.1002/aenm.201502468
  • Antunez PD, Torelli DA, Yang F, Rabuffetti FA, Lewis NS, Brutchey RL (2014) Low Temperature Solution-Phase Deposition of SnS Thin Films. Chemistry of Materials 26:5444–5446. doi: 10.1021/cm503124u
Priscilla Antunez

Brookhaven National Laboratory

Center for Functional Nanomaterials
Bldg. 735
P.O. Box 5000
Upton, NY 11973-5000

(631) 344-6186
(626) 789-4100
 pantunez@bnl.gov

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