Priscilla Antunez
Deputy Chief Strategy Officer, Energy and Photon Sciences Directorate

Brookhaven National Laboratory
Energy and Photon Sciences Directorate
Bldg. 460, Room 109
P.O. Box 5000
Upton, NY 11973-5000
(631) 344-6186
(626) 789-4100
pantunez@bnl.gov
Dr. Priscilla Antunez leads partnerships with businesses, institutions, and agencies to create, execute, communicate, and sustain EPS strategic initiatives. 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, collaborations, and leverage DOE User Facilities at Brookhaven National Lab.
Expertise | Education | Publications | Video
Expertise
Previously, Dr. Antunez served as an Assistant Director for Strategic Partnerships at CFN/Brookhaven Lab (2024) and a Business Development Executive in the Tech Transfer team (2018) 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, Priscilla worked at the IBM TJ Watson Research Center, where she also volunteered to help postdocs and staff with their invention disclosures, a writing group, and other Early Career Group activities (in addition to publishing 9 papers and obtaining 7 patents for her work on solar cell devices).
- Strategy development and execution for maximum impact
- Business development for research organizations
- Project management
- New materials development and process optimization for solar cell devices
Education
- Ph.D. Chemistry, University of Southern California. Researched materials for solar cells: "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
- Antunez PD, Webber DH, Brutchey RL (2013) Solution-Phase Synthesis of Highly Conductive Tungsten Diselenide Nanosheets. Chemistry of Materials 25:2385–2387. https://doi.org/10.1021/cm400790z
- Antunez PD, Buckley JJ, Brutchey RL (2011) Tin and germanium monochalcogenide IV–VI semiconductor nanocrystals for use in solar cells. Nanoscale 3:2399. https://doi.org/10.1039/c1nr10084j
Featured Video
CFN Virtual Tour
September 24, 2020
Brookhaven Lab scientist Aaron Stein takes viewers on a virtual tour of the Center for Functional Nanomaterials, one of the U.S. Department of Energy's five nanoscale science research centers.
This virtual tour at Brookhaven Lab focuses on the Center for Functional Nanomaterials, one of the U.S. Department of Energy's five nanoscale science research centers. This video is part of the self-guided tour initiative at CFN, it was scripted by Ariana Tantillo working with the staff in charge of each instrument, narrated by Aaron Stein, and edited by Tim Kuhn.

Brookhaven National Laboratory
Energy and Photon Sciences Directorate
Bldg. 460, Room 109
P.O. Box 5000
Upton, NY 11973-5000
(631) 344-6186
(626) 789-4100
pantunez@bnl.gov