The drive to create this 1.5-day event stemmed directly from an observed experience of Professor Zakya Kafafi when she was an invited keynote speaker at a 2018 conference on The Stability of Organic Photovoltaics organized by Professor Monica Lira-Cantu in Barcelona, Spain. Professor Kafafi was struck by the level of attendance and active participation by European women scientists and engineers from academia, industry and government laboratories. She was also intrigued by their level of interest and active participation. She thus got the idea of organizing the first WiRE (Women in Renewable Energy) conference at the 2019 annual meeting of the international society of photonics and optics where only women luminaries and researchers in this broad area of renewable energy are invited to present their findings. She invited Professor Monica Lira Cantu to co-chair this conference and a roundtable discussion on the status of women in this field of research. Men and women were invited to submit contributed oral and poster presentations and participate in the roundtable discussion.

This first WiRE conference turned out to be a great success and a wonderful way to demonstrate the impact of the work led by women researchers, and to showcase key trends in renewable energy research developed and led by women scientists and engineers from around the world. At the end of the one-day conference there was a roundtable discussion led by men and women in renewable energy where women leadership and career experiences were discussed, and issues and obstacles hindering the women scientists and engineers progress in this world were addressed. It was the perfect platform for having these leaders in science, research and technology share their experiences, the challenges and obstacles and how they handled them. This first roundtable discussion entitled “The Role of Women Scientists in Renewable Energy” was held at the first WiRE Conference in San Diego, as part of the SPIE annual meeting on Optics + Photonics, in August 2019.

Two WiRE conferences followed, supposedly to be held in person in Spain and France, but were organized virtually due to the COVID pandemic. The primary goal was to inspire the upcoming generation of women scientists and engineers, by sharing knowledge and experience of their senior and more established fellows. Contributing to that changing scenario – by giving more women researchers a bigger platform – offers hope for a more equitable and promising future. After all, “science knows no border.”

In celebration of Women in Optics and the 20th Anniversary of the SPIE Europe Photonics Meeting, the Fourth Conference on Women in Renewable Energy (WiRE) was held on April 7–8, 2024, in Strasbourg, France, as part of the SPIE Europe Photonics annual meeting. The session consisted of invited lectures, a panel discussion at the end of the conference as well as networking. Focus centered on novel concepts, materials, devices, and architectures for renewable energy with its transformative future global utilization, and applications in enabling technologies. All participants, both female and male scientists and engineers from around the world, shared not only the cutting-edge research involved in renewable energy but also visibility and empowerment for women in academic and research environment.

WiRE 2025 was held in Singapore as part of the International Conference on Materials for Advanced Technologies (ICMAT 2025) on July 4, 2025. It served as a pivotal moment to not only celebrate the achievements of women scientists and engineers in renewable energy but also to address the ongoing challenges they still face, ensuring that the next generation of women scientists is better equipped and supported. At WiRE 2025 it was important to share some of the history of scientific development, gender diversity included, and make the younger generation aware that the changes that they are seeing now are the result of struggles of many women scientists and engineers to circumvent obstacles and try to forge a new and better future.