Harvin Mahan

Archie Harvin Mahan 

Dr. Archie Harvin Mahan passed away peacefully at home in Colorado shortly before midnight on Monday, November 25th, 2024 following several years of life-threatening health problems. Born in Maryland to a father who was a physicist and a mother who was a doctor of pharmacology, Hary excelled at academics and sports as a child. Upon graduating from high school, he received a full tuition scholarship to attend Johns Hopkins University where he played on the basketball team and graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in mathematics. While applying to graduate school, he made a trip to Colorado to visit the campus of the University of Colorado at Boulder where he not only fell in love with the beauty of the Colorado mountains but also met the love of his life, Bobette. He received his PhD in experimental physics from the University of Colorado-JILA and upon graduation, accepted post-doctoral positions at the University of Bielefeld in Germany and Rice University in Texas. While making a weekend trip back to Colorado for the football draft, excited to find out which players his beloved Denver Broncos would select, he decided to meet with a colleague at SERI (Solar Energy Research Institute) and unexpectedly walked out with the job of his life and his dreams. He proceeded to work for the next 35 years doing original research in solar physics at SERI and later NREL (the National Renewable Energy Laboratory), often saying "I can't believe I get paid to do something I love so much." His research on photovoltaic materials was instrumental in the development of modern solar cells, and he was respected internationally as a lecturer and speaker in his field. He is the author of more than 150 publications in referred scientific literature. Apart from his work, he was a loving husband to his wife of 52 years and an amazing father to his son Kris and daughter Katie. In his spare time, he enjoyed playing volleyball into his early 70s, writing short stories for his children and working on his novel "The Tales of Phunt". He loved traveling, above all to Hawaii where he enjoyed swimming in the waters of the Pacific, and to Germany, where he enjoyed drinking the local beers, sampling the tortes and sweets at the local Konditoreien and soaking up the culture. His kindness, sweet personality, sense of humor and intelligence will remain forever etched in our hearts and memories. He was deeply loved and will be greatly missed