T. W. Fraser Russell has made significant contributions to process engineering advances relating to the commercialization of photovoltaic technology. He recognized that its commercial viability would require the application of sound chemical engineering principles to solve a very nontraditional chemical engineering problem-in particular the engineering methodologies needed to transfer thin-film deposition processes from die laboratory scale into commercial production. In this paper, a historical narrative, spanning the late 1970s through the present day, is presented detailing Fraser's contributions to the development of photovoltaic film deposition on a continuous moving web via thermal evaporation.