By converting waste heat into electricity through the thermoelectric power of solids without producing greenhouse gas emissions, thermoelectric generators could be an important part of the solution to today’s energy challenge. There has been resurgence in the search of new materials for advanced thermoelectric energy conversion applications. In this talk, I will present our recent progress on thermoelectric research such as thermoelectric transport in PbTe nanostructures, pressure-induced
enhancement of thermoelectric performance in PbTe, SnTe, GeTe materials, strain engineering in graphene sheets and nanoribbons, as well as recent development of thermoelectric theory.