Dr. Sivananthan received his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Physics from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a B.S. degree in Physics from the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka. He has been a pioneer in the growth of single-crystal II-VI materials on silicon for twenty years and proposed their use for the manufacture of ultrahigh-efficiency single-crystal II-VI on silicon photovoltaic solar cells fifteen years ago. Dr. Sivananthan founded EPIR Technologies in 1997 for the commercialization of MBE-grown CdTe on silicon (CdTe/Si) for defense infrared night vision applications and the development of ultrahigh-efficiency photovoltaic solar cells. Dr. Sivananthan also holds the positions of Liberal Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Physics at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and Director of the Microphysics Laboratory (MPL) at UIC. He serves as a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Infrared and Millimeter Waves, the National Advisory Board for the Nanotechnology Core Facility, Advisory Board for Illinois College of Technology, and as an editor of the Proceedings of the US Workshop on the Physics and Chemistry of II-VI Materials.