McGehee, Waters named 2026-27 Distinguished Research Lectureship recipients
The has named Michael McGehee of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Keith Waters of the College of Music as recipients of the 2026-27 Distinguished Research Lectureships.
Among the most esteemed honors bestowed by the faculty upon Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØBoulder faculty members, the Distinguished Research Lectureship recognizes outstanding contributions to research, scholarship and creative work. Each year, RIO solicits nominations from faculty, with recipients selected based on recommendations from a faculty review panel.
Michael McGehee (Chemical and Biological Engineering, RASEI)
Mike McGehee
Michael McGehee is a professor of chemical and biological engineering and holds the James and Catherine Patten Chair in the College of Engineering and Applied Science. He is also affiliated with the Materials Science and Engineering Program, the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI) and the National Laboratory of the Rockies. He is a co-founder and the chief scientist of smart-glass company Tynt Technologies.
McGehee received his PhD in materials science from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1999 and was a professor at Stanford University before joining Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØBoulder in 2018. Ìý
His research team developed a method for making solar cells more efficient by stacking a cell made of a perovskite semiconductor on top of a silicon solar cell. Former students are commercializing this technology through startup companies Tandem PV and Swift Solar. McGehee leads a U.S. Department of Energy-funded consortium helping these companies make these tandem solar cells sufficiently durable to last 25 years.
His team also invented optical devices with adjustable tinting using reversible metal electrodeposition, a process that adds and removes metal to control the amount of light passing through. Windows with this technology can reduce heating, cooling and lighting costs in buildings by 20 percent. Tynt Technologies is applying this technology to augmented reality glasses.
Former students from his lab have founded 22 companies, including CelLink, Raxium, Molten Industries, Sinovia and Antora Energy. He is an instructor for Boulder Climate Ventures, which is supported by Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Ìý
He enjoys teaching students how to identify an important problem to solve, perform premarket research, change course if necessary, and launch successful companies.
Keith Waters (Music Theory, College of Music)
Keith Waters
Keith Waters is a professor of music theory at the College of Music, teaching classes in both Music Theory and Jazz. He received his Master of Music from the New England Conservatory and a PhD from the Eastman School of Music. He has written extensively on jazz, particularly jazz of the 1960s. His work on Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea and others examines their compositions and improvisations, with a focus on how the musicians achieved a détente between traditional jazz approaches and the avant-garde.Ìý
He is the author of Postbop Jazz in the 1960s: The Compositions of Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, and Chick Corea (Oxford University Press, 2019) and the award-winning book The Studio Recordings of the Miles Davis Quintet 1965-68 (Oxford University Press, 2011). He is also the co-author of Chasin’ the Sound: Learning Jazz Improvisation through Historical Models (Oxford University Press, 2025) and the jazz history textbook Jazz: The First Hundred Years (Cengage Learning, 2003). He has lectured widely nationally and internationally, giving invited talks at the Amsterdam Conservatory, Royal Academy of Music (London), Milan Conservatory, Sorbonne, the New England Conservatory and elsewhere.
Prior to coming to the Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØ, he worked professionally as a jazz pianist for a number of years, recording and performing throughout the U.S. and Europe, and in South America and Russia. He has performed in concert with jazz luminaries James Moody, Bobby Hutcherson, Eddie Harris, Chris Connor, Sheila Jordan and others in venues such as Blues Alley and the Kennedy Center. More recently, he performed with Grammy-winning jazz artists trumpeter Brian Lynch (2025) and vocalist Janis Siegel (2022).Ìý
The lectures
McGehee and Waters will each present a Distinguished Research Lecture during the 2026-27 academic year. Dates and details will be shared widely as soon as they are available.Ìý