2012 Speaker Biographies
Conard Holton
Associate Publisher/Editor-in-Chief
Laser Focus World
Conard Holton has 25 years of science and technology editing and writing experience. He was formerly a staff member and consultant for government agencies such as the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and the International Atomic Energy Agency, and engineering companies such as Bechtel. He joined Laser Focus World in 1997 as senior editor, becoming editor in chief of WDM Solutions, which he founded in 1999. In 2003 he joined Vision Systems Design as editor in chief, while continuing as contributing editor at Laser Focus World. Conard became editor in chief of Laser Focus World in August 2011. He received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, with additional studies at the Colorado School of Mines and Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
Dr. Tom Hausken
Director of Optoelectronic Components
Strategies Unlimited
Tom Hausken is Director of Optoelectronic Components at Strategies Unlimited, where he has been since 1999. He directs market research and consulting on topics related to optoelectronic components, including active and passive components for imaging, communications, and nanophotonics. Previously, he was with the Optoelectronic Industry Development Association (OIDA), and he was a policy analyst at the U.S. Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, covering issues related to information technology. He has worked in research and development positions in optoelectronics at Texas Instruments, Philips, and Alcatel. He completed his B.S. degrees at Montana State University and his PhD at the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1990, in optoelectronics.
David Belforte
Editor-in-Chief
Industrial Laser Solutions
David Belforte is an internationally recognized authority on industrial laser materials processing and has been actively involved in this technology for more than 30 years. His consulting business, Belforte Associates, serves clients interested in advanced manufacturing applications. He holds degrees in Chemistry and Production Technology from Northeastern University (Boston, MA) He conducted basic studies in material synthesis for high-temperature applications and has held increasingly important positions with companies involved with high-technology materials processing. He co-founded a company that introduced several firsts in advanced welding technology and equipment. His career in lasers started with the commercialization of the first industrial solid-state laser and a compact CO2 laser for sheet-metal cutting. For several years, he led the development of very high power CO2 lasers for welding and surface treating applications. In addition to consulting, Belforte is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Industrial Laser Solutions magazine and contributes to other laser publications, including Laser Focus World.
Prof. Ramesh Raskar
MIT Media Lab
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Ramesh Raskar heads the Camera Culture group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab, which he joined from Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories in 2008. His research interests span the fields of computational light transport, computational photography, inverse problems in imaging, and human-computer interaction. Recent projects and inventions include femto-photography to look around a corner, a next generation CAT-scan machine, long distance barcodes, touch+hover 3D interaction displays, and low-cost eye care devices. He is a recipient of a Global Indus Technovator Award as one of the top 20 Indian technology innovators worldwide, an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship award, and a DARPA Young Faculty award. He received his PhD from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and holds over 40 US patents. He is currently co-authoring a book on computational photography.
Dr. Mark Douglass
Vice President / Sr. Equity Analyst - Industrial Technology
Longbow Research
Mark Douglass is Vice President, Senior Equity Analyst for Longbow Research in the Cleveland, Ohio area, providing investment research to institutional investors on publicly traded US equities that fall under what he calls Industrial Technology. Prior to joining Longbow, he worked as a senior engineer for both small and large companies, specializing in laser-based manufacturing applications. Mark has passed Level II in the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) Program, and is a member of the Laser Institute of America and the American Welding Society and has sat on several industrial standards committees. Mark received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan and his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois.
Dr. Milton Chang
Founder / Managing Director
Incubic Management
Milton Chang is founder and managing director of Incubic Management, a venture fund investing in high-tech startups. He was President/CEO of Newport and New Focus, both of which he took public, and is currently director of Precision Photonics, mBio, and Aurrion. Chang is a Fellow of IEEE, OSA, and LIA, and writes the Business Forum column in Laser Focus World. He is also the author of a recently published book, Toward Entrepreneurship: Establishing a Successful Technology Business. He earned his BS from the University of Illinois and his PhD from the California Institute of Technology.
Dr. David Welch
Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy Officer
Infinera
David Welch is co-founder of Infinera, a supplier of fiber optic transmission systems based on photonic integrated circuit (PIC) technology. He currently holds the position of Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, where his role includes responsibility for complete corporate strategy including markets, products, and execution strategies. Welch previously served in numerous executive roles at SDL and JDS Uniphase. He has published over 250 articles and holds more than 125 patents in optical components and systems, serves on the board of directors of OSA, and is a fellow of the IEEE. Welch holds a BS in electrical engineering from the University of Delaware and a PhD in electrical engineering from Cornell.
Dr. Philip Taday
Prinipal Scientist/Head of Applications Group
Teraview Ltd.
PHIL TADAY has a B.Sc.(Hons) degree in Physics with Laser Physics obtained from University College of Swansea. He has obtained a Ph.D. from the Department of Chemistry from the University of Reading. He worked for the Central Laser Facility at the CLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) as a Higher Scientific Officer from November 1989 until July 2000. He was promoted to a Senior Scientific Officer in September 1999. Until 1992 he worked on the VULCAN Nd:glass laser program. He worked on the development of femtosecond tabletop laser system and novel tunable sources. In August 2000, Dr. Taday moved to work for Toshiba Research Europe Limited, Cambridge, where he was responsible for the
development of advanced terahertz sources. His role developed into the Head of Spectroscopy when the actively was “spun-out” of Toshiba into a new company called TeraView Limited. At this new company Dr. Taday is responsible for the exploitation of new terahertz application areas. Dr. Taday is currently a Principal Scientist and is Head of the Applications Group at TeraView Limited. He has authored and co-authored 97 published papers, 3 book chapters and has presented numerous invited conference presentations. He is a co-inventor of 5 patent applications.
Martin Seifert
President
Nufern
Martin Siefert is the president of Nufern (East Granby, Connecticut), which was founded in 2000 as a telecom specialty-fiber house. Nufern successfully changed to a fiber-laser and amplifier supplier for the industrial and military markets in 2003, and was sold to Rofin in early 2008. While Siefert has predominantly been a business leader for the last twenty four years, he has a technical background and is named on a number of Nufern fiber, chip, and laser patents. Prior to Nufern, he was the president and GM of Lucent Specialty Fibers.
Prof. Heinz P. Huber
Munich University of Applied Sciences
Consultant for High Q Laser / Spectra-Physics, A Newport Corporation Brand
Dr. Heinz P. Huber has been active for 15 years in the photonics industry and holds a position as Professor for Laser Technology and Photonics at the Munich University of Applied Science (MUAS). He is consulting High Q Laser / Spectra-Physics, A Newport Corporation Brand, Austria, for sales and marketing. In his research he focusses on the laser ablation of thin film systems with ultrafast lasers. Previously he held a position as VP Sales and Marketing at TuiLaser AG. He received a PhD in physics (on ultrafast laser spectroscopy) at Ludwig-Maximilians-University and a master’s degree in physics from Technische University Munich in Germany.
