Ron Sinton

Ron Sinton was born in Denver, with Colorado roots going back to the 1880s. With a life-long interest in nature, Ron gravitated towards studies in renewable energy while keeping a practical bent by studying Engineering Physics at CU Boulder. The B.S. from CU led to a PhD in solar electricity from Stanford in 1987. Ron was a founding member of a solar-cell company (SunPower) in Sunnyvale CA. He returned “home” in 1998, moving his engineering company, Sinton Instruments, to Boulder, CO. This company manufactures and exports high-tech equipment worldwide to the solar-cell and module manufacturing industries. Ron has been on the advisory board for the Solar Decathlon projects at CU and supports several activities in engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences at the University. Professionally, he has received the 2014 IEEE Photovoltaics “Cherry Award” for lifetime achievement in the field of solar photovoltaics as one of the key scientists that have contributed to the development of the solar panels that are now becoming a key part of our clean-energy infrastructure on rooftops and in utility power plants. More generally, Ron tries to understand the details of the energy economy in Colorado and the world.