Dr Varonides is a member of the Physics/EE department and teaches physics and engineering courses at all levels. His favorite courses are engineering math, solid state devices, photonics and photovoltaics, theory of superconductivity, thermodynamics and electromagnetic theory. For senior level students he teaches advanced courses and seminars on superconductors, high efficiency solar cells, laser and light emitting diodes, and antenna theory. He has created and taught for many years astronomy courses for non-science majors such as The Solar System and Stellar Evolution.

Dr Varonides’ current research (in collaboration with other faculty) focuses on nano-photovoltaics (nano-PV), high efficiency crystalline solar cells (theory and characterization), polymer solar cells, Josephson Tunneling in Hybrid Nano-SIN Diodes, and tunneling microscopy (experiment and theory).

In his spare time Dr Varonides enjoys beating his i-pod in chess and checkers; he greatly enjoys classical and all kinds of quality music; late at night, he enjoys studying post-byzantine musical compositions (καλοΦωνιε ιρυοι) by Greek masters of the last three centuries.

Unified Science Center

In the Fall Semester of 2011 the University of Scranton will complete work on the Unified Science Center, located around what is currently St. Thomas Hall.

You can follow a live video feed of the construction here.

Current Research Interests

• Embedded hetero-structures for high efficiency solar cells
• Physics of solar cells; high efficiency solar cells
• Tunneling, hopping and  thermionic currents in solar cells
• Heterostructures and multijunction devices
• Nanodevices, nano-PV and nano-PV for concentrated photovoltaics (CPV)
• Theory of polymer and hybrid solar cells
• Quantum well and quantum dot l infrared photodetectors
• Advanced Engineering Electromagnetics
• Microwave theory and applications
• Tunneling Phenomena in semi- and  super-conducting structures
• Dynamics of Josephson Tunneling in Hybrid Nano-SIN Diodes
• Cooperative phenomena in modern solid state devices

Recent research activity

1. AC Varonides, RA Spalletta & WA Berger, Effects of Auger Recombination on Excess Photocarrier Concentration in GaAs-Ge Quantum Wells for Photovoltaic Structures, Presented at the European Materials Society, Strasbourg, France,  May 31, 2007.
2. AC Varonides, Hopping conduction in III-N-V heterojunctions, Presented at the European Materials Society, Strasbourg, France, May 31, 2007.
3. AC Varonides, RA Spalletta & WA Berger, Effects of Auger Cooling on Excess Photocarrier Concentration in GaAs-Ge Quantum Wells for Photovoltaic Structures, European Materials Society, Palais des Congrès, Strasbourg, France,  May 28 - June 1, 2007.
4. AC Varonides, RA Spalletta & WA Berger, Thermal currents in III-V QW solar cells, European Materials Society, Spring Meeting 2005, Palais des Congrès, Strasbourg, France,  May 28 - June 1, 2007.
5. AC Varonides, RA Spalletta & WA Berger E-MRS, Explicit Auger cooling dependence of excess carrier population in III-V quantum wells and Dots, for PV applications. European Materials Society, Spring Meeting 2005, Palais des Congrès, Strasbourg, France,  May 28 - June 1, 2007
6. AC Varonides & RA Spalletta, Hopping currents in the intrinsic region of III-N-V quantum well structures in the tight binding approximation, Physica  Status Solidi (c) 5, No. 2, 441–444 (2008).
7. AC Varonides, RA Spalletta, WA Berger, Modeling of a new n⁺-n-p AlAs/AlGaAs/GaAs Solar Cell, at 21% Collection Efficiency, Presented at the World Renewable Energy Congress X, 21-25 July 2008, Glasgow, UK
8. AC Varonides, RA Spalletta, G Keiser, P Chiappini, Fine tuning near 1 eV for full spectrum high efficiency (>30%) nano-solar cells via GaAs/Ge superlattices, presented at the 5^th International Conference on Nanosciences & Nanotechnologies, NN08, 14-16 July 2008, Thessaloniki, Greece.
9. AC Varonides, RA Spalletta, Simulation of a Double-junction GaAs-Alloy Structure as a Probe For High Efficiency Solar Cells in the Visible, WSEAS 2008, Crete, Greece
10. AC Varonides, RA Spalletta, The road to High Efficiency Solar Cells: Selective Absorption for Full-Spectrum operation via GaAs/Alloy & GaAs/Ge Superlattices, WSEAS July 2008, Crete, Greece.
11. AC Varonides, Hopping Currents in III-V PV-heterostructures, for High Efficiency Solar Cells (HESC’s) WSEAS July 2008, Crete, Greece.
12. AC Varonides, “Full spectrum absorption and 1eV-tuning in a P - (AlAs/GaAs)-i - (GaAs/Ge) MQW – n (GaAs or Ge) high efficiency solar cell”, Proceedings of the 34^th Photovoltaics Specialists Conference (PVSC), Philadelphia, PA, June 2009.
13. AC Varonides, RA Spalletta, “III-V triple junctions and MQW fine-tuning at 1eV, in Synergy for high efficiency ( 40%) solar cells”, Proceedings of the 34th PVSC Conference, Philadelphia, PA, June 2009.
14. AC Varonides, G Kaiser , P Chiappini,  “WKB method and tunneling through GaAs/Ge superlattices for high efficiency solar cells”,   Proceedings of the 34th PVSC Conference, Philadelphia, PA, June 2009.
15. AC Varonides, “Thermionic Emission and Diffusion Theory for Carrier Transport in Organic Solar Cells”, Invited Lecture at the 6^th International Conference on Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies, 13-15 July, 2009, Thessaloniki, Greece.
16. AC Varonides, “High Efficiency Solar Cells”, Summer Graduate School Lecture, 3^d  International Summer School on Nano-Sciences and Nano-Technologies, SS- NN09, July 2009, Thessaloniki, Greece.
17. AC Varonides and Colby Haggerty, “Photo- current Generation Analysis for Triple Junction n⁺-n-p GaAs-based Solar Cells, presented at the Third Annual Faculty Research Symposium, April 9, 2010, King's College, PA
18. AC Varonides, RA Spalletta, “Improved short-circuit currents for high efficiency Quantum Well GaAs-Ge p-i-n solar cells”, presented at the Third Annual Faculty Research Symposium, April 9, 2010, King's College, PA
19. AC Varonides, RA Spalletta & WA Berger, “Multijunction High Efficiency Solar Cells, via Quantum Wells”, presented at the Third Annual Faculty Research Symposium, April 9, 2010, King's College, PA
20. AC Varonides and RA Spalletta, “Design of Curriculum Modules for K-12, Undergraduate and Continuing Education in Sustainability and Renewable Energy", presented at the Third Annual Faculty Research Symposium, April 9, 2010, King's College, PA
21. AC Varonides, “Dynamics of Josephson Tunneling in Hybrid Nano-SIN Diodes, a device approach, Presented at the NN10, Thessaloniki, Greece, July 2010
22. AC Varonides, Quantum PV via superlattices and quantum dots, ISSN10, Greece, July 2010   
23. AC Varonides, High Efficiency Solar Cells (HESC’s), Springer Verlag, Book-Chapter, in print, 2010
24. AC Varonides, High Efficiency Solar Cells (HESC’s), accepted for publication, book-chapter, in print, 2010,
25. AC Varonides, “High-Efficiency Lattice-matched Multijunction (not in tandem) Solar Cell via Tuned GaAs-Ge Quantum Wells, Proceedings of the 25^th European PV Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition, Valencia, Spain, 2010