Niyazi Serdar Sarıçiftçi went to the Institute for Polymers & Organic Solids at the University of California, Santa Barbara, California, United States, where he worked for four years and, together with Alan J. Heeger (Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2000) discovered and investigated the polymeric organic solar cells has (1992–1996).

In April 1996, he accepted the appointment as Chair of Physical Chemistry at the Johannes Kepler University Linz.

In 2016, he was elected as member of the European Academy of Engineering.