When Harold McMaster looked to the future of glass, he saw beyond automobiles and windows. With his foresight and ingenuity, he saw the power for energy.
Working with Norman Nitschke and other local investors, he founded companies including Solar Cells, which later became First Solar. The pioneer in solar energy held more than 100 patents at the time of his death in 2003.
His wife, Helen, is now honoring his memory and his commitment to solar energy research through a $2 million gift to The University of Toledo Foundation, to create the Harold and Helen McMaster Chair in Photovoltaics. The fund will support a distinguished research scholar in the field of photovoltaics, the technology used to convert sunlight into electricity. An international search will be conducted for the position, which will strengthen the University’s already significant work in alternative energy research.
On the heels of the gift announcement, the University learned that the State of Ohio, through the Ohio Research Scholars Program, is providing an increased grant to UT, and that the McMaster gift will be an important part of the required 1:1 match. UT, in partnership with Bowling Green State University, was recommended for $8 million to strengthen a photovoltaics cluster in Ohio. The proposal was led by Dr. Robert Collins, NEG Chair of Silicate and Materials Science, and corporate collaborators included Pilkington NA; Xunlight, Inc.; and Calyxo USA, Inc., said Dr. Al Compaan, chair of the UT department of physics and astronomy. 
The $8 million grant includes $2.5 million in endowment, to support an additional endowed faculty position, Dr. Compaan noted, as well as $4 million in capital funds for facilities and equipment.
“For the past 21 years, the McMaster family has continuously supported the College of Arts and Sciences, including McMaster Hall and various other gifts for the photovoltaics program,” said Dr. Yueh-Ting Lee, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “Because of their support, we have been successful in recruiting outstanding faculty and scholars, recognized nationally and internationally as leaders and experts in the photovoltaics field. Helen’s gift provides us with another opportunity to transform our College and University. It will help us to move the photovoltaics research to the next level of excellence and recognition.”
“This gift demonstrates the commitment of the McMaster family and the McMaster Foundation to invest in university research and the Toledo community, to guarantee that Toledo will be a national leader in discoveries in solar energy,” said Dr. Frank Calzonetti, UT vice president for research development. “Toledo is now being recognized as a national center for solar energy research and manufacturing, technology that will provide clean energy for the nation and world.”
Over the past two decades, the McMaster family has provided gifts to create a chair in bioengineering and to help construct a new physics and astronomy building, McMaster Hall. The Harold and Helen McMaster Engineering Library in Palmer Hall was dedicated in 2006, and the department of Physics and Astronomy holds an annual McMaster Cosmology Colloquium.