Featured in Battling the elements – 09-2025

‘This group of people is not going to be thwarted’

Dick Swanson has left his fingerprints all over the modern solar industry. He is widely known for spreading the word on solar’s impressive learning curve with what has become known as Swanson’s Law, for developing the interdigitated back contact (IBC) cell, and for founding SunPower. In June, Swanson was named 2025 IEEE Photonics Society Aron Kressel Award Recipient and spoke with pv magazine to reflect on his work.

By

Jonathan Gifford

08 Sep 2025

Image: Dick Swanson

Thanks for making the time to speak with me. What is your official title these days?I’m retired. Isn’t that what you’re allowed to be?Absolutely it is, particularly with all that you’ve achieved. And congratulations on this recent IEEE Award. What do you see as the significance of this award?What I like about this award is …

This article is part of pv+

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