Within the last 15 years or so, rapid advancement has been made in the field of thermoelectric (TE) materials and device applications. At the same time, novel behaviors, due to quantum confinement, “rattling” effect, and strong electron correlation have been observed. Although significant progress in fundamental understanding has been made, it is still lagging behind the materials synthesis effort largely on serendipity. In this lecture series, a physicist view of thermoelectricity is given. We will first critically examine the classic theory on thermoelectricity and several classic TE materials, and discuss what has been missing for so many years. It will be followed by the review of most recent theoretical works and experiments that probe various puzzling pieces, aiming at providing new directions for the TE materials research in the future. The last in the series will be a review of current state-of-the-art experimental techniques in the physics community that might be able to put the puzzle together.

Lecture I (Tuesday, Aug. 17)– What we know about thermoelectric materials from the classic theory and serendipity

Lecture II (Wednesday, Aug. 18)– Unconventional thermoelectric materials and new directions

Lecture III (Thursday, Aug. 19)– Advanced characterization techniques – mapping the Fermi-surface and tracking the phonon dynamics