Sam Stranks, Professor of Energy Materials and Optoelectronics at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Clare College, is applying his expertise in photovoltaics to address challenges in climate change and healthcare. Stranks, who has founded two companies and an education charity, emphasizes the importance of bringing academic innovations into practical use.
"It's our duty as academics to try our best to get new ideas and technologies out into the world where they can make a difference," Stranks said.
Stranks comes from a family with a strong background in medicine and academia. His grandfather, Professor Don Stranks, contributed significantly to the field of chemistry by paving the way for metal organic frameworks (MOFs), a development that later led Richard Robson to receive the 2025 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Although he did not meet his grandfather, Stranks was inspired by his work and cited it in his own PhD thesis.
After completing undergraduate studies at Adelaide University with majors in physics, chemistry, geology, biology, and German, Stranks received a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford. There he began research on emerging solar cell technologies. He focused on perovskites—a material now used globally for solar power—which were just beginning to show promise in laboratory settings when he started working with them in 2012.
Following his time at Oxford, Stranks moved to MIT where he encountered a strong entrepreneurial culture that influenced his perspective on combining science with business. "Before I went to MIT, I had thought of academia and entrepreneurship as separate things... But MIT is an amazing environment for entrepreneurial innovation," he said.
At MIT, Stranks co-founded Swift Solar alongside colleagues from both MIT and Oxford. The company aims to develop high-efficiency solar panels using perovskites that can generate up to 40 percent more power per square meter than conventional panels while reducing installation costs. The company currently operates a pilot manufacturing line and expects its first product within two or three years.
Stranks explained why Swift Solar remains based in the United States: fundraising opportunities are greater there due to deeper pools of investment capital required for scaling solar technology manufacturing. Additionally, some co-founders preferred staying in the US for personal reasons.
In addition to Swift Solar, Stranks established Sustain Education—an education charity designed to address climate anxiety among schoolchildren by providing teaching modules about technological solutions to climate change. The materials were piloted at University of Cambridge Primary School before being made freely available online. To date, teaching packs have been downloaded around 3,000 times and are known to be used in at least 20 schools.
"Children are being taught about climate change but they are not being told that there are potential technology solutions," said Stranks regarding the motivation behind Sustain Education.
The charity is seeking funds for a full-time coordinator as it looks toward future growth.
Stranks also co-founded Clarity Sensors—a spinout from his Cambridge lab supported by Cambridge Enterprise—to improve medical imaging technology. By adapting solar cell technology for X-ray detection, Clarity Sensors aims to produce clearer images while reducing radiation exposure by up to 100 times compared with current methods. This could lower infrastructure costs for hospitals and enable safer mobile scanning units. The company recently secured funding from the European Innovation Council Transitions grant which will support hiring key staff during its launch phase.
Reflecting on setbacks common in academic careers—such as rejected grant applications or investor interest—Stranks noted: "You have to learn not to take it personally... It's something we should be better at teaching our younger colleagues."
He encourages young researchers interested in entrepreneurship: "If you are passionate about it, go for it... You have to be prepared for the blood, sweat and tears."
Stranks credits Cambridge’s entrepreneurial culture with supporting ventures like Clarity Sensors: "It definitely helps that there's an entrepreneurial culture here... Clarity Sensors is a much more conventional Cambridge spinout... supported by Cambridge Enterprise."
Looking ahead ten years, Stranks hopes his initiatives will have measurable impact on climate change mitigation and human health while inspiring young people toward innovation.