One day in the summer of 1980, Heinz Frei was working on his
postdoctoral project at UC Berkeley, when his mentor walked up
to his desk in Hildebrand Hall.  George Pimentel, the late
scientist whose name now adorns the chemistry lab, had just
returned from a Department of Energy solar research conference.
He said he was surprised that one presentation after another had
focused on ultraviolet light, which represents just a tiny
fraction of the energy in sunlight.  Infrared, which makes up
far more of the energy reaching the Earth, had hardly earned a
mention. The real potential to exploit sunlight lay in this
"long" end of the light wavelength spectrum, Pimentel told Frei,
yet no one seemed to be exploring the possibility.  Would he
like to set up a research group at Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory to try?  Frei had been considering moving back to his
native Switzerland. Instead, he said yes on the spot.  Without
knowing it at the time, the decision would represent his first
step on a long path to the de