Silvana Ayala Pelaez is a Post-doc at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, working with the Photovoltaic (PV) Field Performance & Reliability group on bifacial silicon PV technology. She has a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Arizona, where she worked in the Photonic Systems Laboratory under Dr. Raymond Kostuk, performing research on the integration of holographic optical components with pv materials for higher efficiency in solar panels. She also has a M.S. in Optical Sciences at the same University. She received a B.S. in Mechatronics Engineering from Monterrey Tec (ITESM 2007). Current projects are focused on bifacial photovoltaic performance and modeling. Her research includes characterization and optical raytracing/energy simulation for bifacial systems.