Prof. Ahoutou Paul KOUAKOU

Ahoutou Paul Kouakou earned his PhD at the University of Lorraine (France) in 2008 where he used to work on carbon based thin films materials deposition by CVD and PVD assisted by plasma. Important part of he’s work was the characterization of the plasma and the obtained films by different technics (SEM, AFM, TEM, XPS, Auger, SIMS, FTIR, photoluminescence, Raman, XRD, profilometry, ellipsometry, nanoindentation) in order to improve their properties (morphological, structural, chemical, optical, mechanical).

After getting he’s PhD, he decided to go back to he’s original country to share he’s experiences got in Europe as Assistant professor at Université Nangui ABROGOUA.

 During these past 15 years he used to teach for different universities (University Nangui ABROGOUA, University of Daloa, ESATIC) Electromagnetism, optic, electricity, thermodynamic, mechanic, plasma physic, thin films, at bachelor and master levels. He has also supervised several graduated students and he’s supervising 3 PhD students.

He kept he’s collaboration with he’s former laboratories in France and Luxembourg, but as the cost of the research apparatus for this topic are not affordable by the Ivorian Universities, he decided to move into another topic that is closer the reality of the country, energy supply. This is why, he applied and got the Fulbright fellowship to go in USA to make research on the area of affordable energy, especially perovskite solar energy.

 After these 9 months scientific and cultural exchange program, Prof. Kouakou decided to come back and continue in this area of solar energy, particularly perovskite solar cells and energy efficiency.

 Since 2021, he is the manager on the Côte d’Ivoire side of the project IIDES-NSC (www.iides-nsc.org), and also of the project SECO (www.seco.iides-nsc.org) in collaboration with the German University Hochschule Niederrhein. These projects funded by BMZ and DAAD deal with sustainable development and high education employability.

 He's also the manager of the Master Engineering Water and Energy created at UNA through the project IIDES-NSC.

 With he’s extensive international experience (France, Luxembourg, Germany, Belgium, Italia…), including a Fulbright scholarship at the University of Delaware, USA, and a C. V. Raman scholarship at IIT Indore India, Prof. Kouakou has lot of scientific competences but also a lot of soft, cultural and social skills useful for international partnerships.