# Eli Zysman‐Colman
**Eli Zysman-Colman** is Professor of Optoelectronic Materials at the [University of St Andrews](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-st-andrews) in Scotland. He is known for the design of thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters, a class of purely organic compounds used as the light-emitting layer in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), and for translating that chemistry into a spin-out company, SolOLED.[1](https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/chemistry/people/ezc) • [2](http://zysman-colman.com/eli) • [3](https://impact.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/shedding-light-on-sololed-sustainable-materials-for-oled-displays-and-beyond/)
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Field | Materials chemistry: TADF emitters for OLEDs, sensing materials, imaging agents, photocatalysts[1](https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/chemistry/people/ezc) |
| Position | Professor of Optoelectronic Materials, University of St Andrews (since 2013; chair since 2019)[1](https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/chemistry/people/ezc) • [4](https://www.rsc.org/standards-and-recognition/prizes/winners/professor-eli-zysman-colman) |
| Signature work | "Purely Organic Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Materials for Organic Light-Emitting Diodes", Advanced Materials, 2017[5](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.201605444) |
| Major funding | EPSRC program grant of £5,012,846 for SolOLED, April 2023 to April 2028[6](https://gtr.ukri.org/person/DE2DA730-AB48-4CE6-90B0-AE4E4CBE85B4) |
| Industry | CEO of SolOLED, a St Andrews spin-out making luminescent dendrimer OLED emitters[3](https://impact.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/shedding-light-on-sololed-sustainable-materials-for-oled-displays-and-beyond/) |
| Honours | RSC Tilden Prize; Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and of the RSC; EPSRC Open Fellowship (2025)[4](https://www.rsc.org/standards-and-recognition/prizes/winners/professor-eli-zysman-colman) |
## Education and career
He received his BSc in physics from [McGill University](https://www.edgepedia.org/mcgill-university) in 1998 and his PhD there in 2003, supervised by David N. Harpp as an FCAR scholar, working in physical organic sulfur chemistry.[2](http://zysman-colman.com/eli) • [1](https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/chemistry/people/ezc)
He also joined the School of Chemistry at the University of St Andrews as Director of Impact.[1](https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/chemistry/people/ezc)
## Research: TADF emitter design
OLED emitters have developed through three generations. First-generation fluorescent compounds could recruit only singlet excitons, capping their efficiency at 25%. Second-generation iridium(III) and platinum(II) phosphorescent complexes harvest both singlet and triplet excitons, but rely on scarce metals. Third-generation TADF emitters are small organic compounds whose triplet excitons convert to emissive singlets thermally, so they too can recruit 100% of excitons without a metal.[7](http://www.sfu.ca/chemistry/news-events/events/seminar_eli_zymsman-colman_20230614.html) Replacing phosphorescent metal complexes with inexpensive organic compounds of comparable performance, his 2017 review argues, is paradigm shifting for low-cost lighting and displays.[5](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.201605444)
Two emitter families dominate current design. Donor–acceptor TADF compounds emit broadly because their emissive singlet state has charge-transfer character. Multiresonant (MR) TADF emitters, typically heteroatom-doped nanographenes, show significantly narrower emission, high photoluminescence quantum yields, and small singlet–triplet gaps of around 200 meV, which is what display color purity requires.[7](http://www.sfu.ca/chemistry/news-events/events/seminar_eli_zymsman-colman_20230614.html) • [8](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adfm.201908677) His program designs materials for OLED and light-emitting electrochemical cell architectures, sensing materials, optical imaging agents, and photocatalysts for organic synthesis.[1](https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/chemistry/people/ezc)
## Representative work
His 2017 Advanced Materials review, "Purely Organic Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Materials for Organic Light-Emitting Diodes", comprehensively covers TADF small molecules, dendrimers, polymers, and exciplexes as emitters, and hosts, cross-compared for blue, green–yellow, orange–red, and white OLEDs.[5](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.201605444)
## Group, funding and industry
UKRI records an EPSRC award of £5,012,846 for "SolOLED: TADF Dendrimers for Highly Efficient Solution-Processed OLEDs" running April 2023 to April 2028, and an earlier award of £1,022,789 for "Multi-resonance TADF materials for highly efficient and stable OLEDs" running July 2018 to January 2025.[6](https://gtr.ukri.org/person/DE2DA730-AB48-4CE6-90B0-AE4E4CBE85B4) In 2025 he was awarded an EPSRC open fellowship supporting solution-processable dendrimer TADF emitters, aided by an automated film characterization platform.[4](https://www.rsc.org/standards-and-recognition/prizes/winners/professor-eli-zysman-colman) • [9](https://www.boron.ac.uk/news-1/professor-eli-zysman-colman-awarded-epsrc-open-fellowship)
He became CEO of SolOLED, a materials science company spun out from his group's research, which develops strongly emissive luminescent dendrimers as OLED emitter materials; it has received funding from the EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account, Scottish Enterprise, and a Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Fellowship, and was the first [St Andrews](https://www.edgepedia.org/st-andrews) group funded by CENSIS.[3](https://impact.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/shedding-light-on-sololed-sustainable-materials-for-oled-displays-and-beyond/) SolOLED took part in the Creative Destruction Lab Matter Stream, progressing to its second round, and plans to base itself at the University's Eden Campus.[3](https://impact.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/shedding-light-on-sololed-sustainable-materials-for-oled-displays-and-beyond/)
## Recent developments
The 2024 Advanced Materials paper combining a donor–acceptor TADF moiety with an MR-TADF emitting core reports strong electroluminescence performance ([DOI](https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202412761)).[10](https://www.zysman-colman.com/publications) In 2025, a group paper in [Angewandte Chemie](https://www.edgepedia.org/angewandte-chemie) reported that judicious incorporation of [chalcogens](https://www.edgepedia.org/chalcogens) in MR-TADF emitters yields OLEDs with efficiencies exceeding 36% and very mild efficiency roll-off.[10](https://www.zysman-colman.com/publications) The emitters show photoluminescence quantum yields of 98% and 94%, singlet–triplet gaps of 0.14 and 0.15 eV, and reverse intersystem crossing rates of 2.37 × 10⁴ and 1.23 × 10⁴ s⁻¹.[11](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11854867/) That work was supported by the EPSRC grants EP/W015137/1 and EP/W007517/1.[11](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11854867/)
He won the Royal Society of Chemistry's Tilden Prize for the pioneering development of mechanophotocatalysts and the use of organic TADF compounds to drive sustainable photocatalysis, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.[4](https://www.rsc.org/standards-and-recognition/prizes/winners/professor-eli-zysman-colman) • [12](https://rse.org.uk/fellowship/fellow/professor-eli-zysman-colman-36973/)
## References
1. [Prof Eli Zysman-Colman, School of Chemistry, University of St Andrews](https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/chemistry/people/ezc)
2. [The Zysman-Colman Group, CV](http://zysman-colman.com/eli)
3. [Shedding light on SolOLED, University of St Andrews](https://impact.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/shedding-light-on-sololed-sustainable-materials-for-oled-displays-and-beyond/)
4. [Professor Eli Zysman-Colman, Royal Society of Chemistry prizes](https://www.rsc.org/standards-and-recognition/prizes/winners/professor-eli-zysman-colman)
5. [Purely Organic Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Materials for Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (Adv. Mater., 2017)](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.201605444)
6. [Eli Zysman-Colman, UKRI Gateway to Research](https://gtr.ukri.org/person/DE2DA730-AB48-4CE6-90B0-AE4E4CBE85B4)
7. [SFU seminar abstract, June 2023](http://www.sfu.ca/chemistry/news-events/events/seminar_eli_zymsman-colman_20230614.html)
8. [Multiresonant TADF Emitters Based on Heteroatom-Doped Nanographenes (Adv. Funct. Mater.)](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adfm.201908677)
9. [EPSRC Open Fellowship award, Boron: Beyond the Reagent](https://www.boron.ac.uk/news-1/professor-eli-zysman-colman-awarded-epsrc-open-fellowship)
10. [The Zysman-Colman Group, Publications](https://www.zysman-colman.com/publications)
11. [A Multiresonant Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescent Dendrimer with Intramolecular Energy Transfer (Adv. Mater., 2025)](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11854867/)
12. [Professor Eli Zysman-Colman, Royal Society of Edinburgh](https://rse.org.uk/fellowship/fellow/professor-eli-zysman-colman-36973/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Physical world and mathematics › Physical and mathematical scientists › Chemists › Researchers in polymer, supramolecular, and materials chemistry › Conjugated and organic electronic materials*
*Initially written Sep 21, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 25, 2026; Sep 30, 2026 · Edited: Sep 25, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 11, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Sep 30, 2026*
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