After receiving her Ph.D. in physics from Boston University, Wei Sun accepted a postdoc at the Janelia Research Campus of Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She then joined Thorlabs and now works with both customers and the R&D team to develop new technologies that enable research and discoveries.

Manfred joined Thorlabs in 1991 after graduating as an electronics engineer from the University of Applied Sciences in Munich, Germany. He began as a production engineer, expanding the series production of laser instrumentation. In 2002, his role evolved to include the exploration of power and energy meters as well as other sensor products. In 2018, Manfred began leading the Thorlabs Light Detection and Analysis Technology Department where he continues to grow and enhance the LDA product line.

Dr. Matthias Pues studied Physics at the University of Hamburg and graduated with a Diploma in 2010. After obtaining his doctorate, which focused on micromagnetics, he joined Thorlabs' OCT applications team in 2015. Currently, he is responsible for OCT development projects for OEMs.

After graduating with a degree in physics from the Instituto Balseiro (Bariloche, Argentina) in 1992, Pablo Stickar developed signal processing algorithms for NDT systems in the steel industry. From 2007 to 2012 he wrote a dissertation in materials science at the ETH-Zürich (Switzerland). He is now part of the team that develops software and firmware for OCT systems at Thorlabs.

Manfred joined Thorlabs in 1991 after graduating as an electronics engineer from the University of Applied Sciences in Munich, Germany. He began as a production engineer, expanding the series production of laser instrumentation. In 2002, his role evolved to include the exploration of power and energy meters as well as other sensor products. In 2018, Manfred began leading the Thorlabs Light Detection and Analysis Technology Department where he continues to grow and enhance the LDA product line.

David Gardner has been with Thorlabs for almost 10 years and is currently working as a Senior Process Engineer. Within his role, Dave leads the development and production of our fluoride fiber while also supporting the characterization, testing, and R&D for our silica and fluoride manufacturing teams. Dave also plays a major role in the development of new fiber products and processes.

Dr. Dierck Hillmann studied Physics at the University of Kaiserslautern and the University of Bonn. In 2008, he joined Thorlabs' OCT development team. While working for Thorlabs, he obtained his doctorate from the University of Lübeck and is now working for both Thorlabs and the university. His role includes software engineering, lecturing, and joint research with Gereon Hüttmann's group.

Dr. Sebastian Schäfer studied Chemistry at the University of Siegen and graduated with a Master’s degree in 2008. After he obtained his doctorate in Physical Chemistry from the University of Hamburg in 2012, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Rochester for two years. He joined Thorlabs in 2015 where he currently leads a group of application engineers and supports Thorlabs’ OCT customers with pre- and post-sales needs.

William "Bill" Donovan joined Thorlabs over 12 years ago as a design engineer and is currently the Engineering Manager for Thorlabs' Advanced Photonics Division. Within his role, Bill oversees a team of engineers as well as our manufacturing processes related to fiber and free-space optical components and subassemblies.

Dr. Brendan Kennedy is an Associate Professor in the School of Engineering at the University of Western Australia, Head of BRITElab at the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, and Chief Scientific Officer at OncoRes Medical. He received his Ph.D. from Dublin City University in 2006. His doctoral thesis focused on nonlinear polarization rotation in semiconductor optical amplifiers. His current research focuses on the development of optical coherence tomography and optical elastography and their application in a range of fields, particularly in oncology and tissue engineering. He has published >80 peer-reviewed journal papers and has won a number of awards including a West Australian 40under40 Award in 2019.

Henry Haeberle is an Applications Specialist at Thorlabs. Dr. Haeberle received his BS and PhD degrees in Neuroscience from Stanford University and the Univeristy of California, San Francisco, respectively. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford Univeristy School of Medicine and Baylor College of Medicine before working as a Staff Scientist at the University of New South Wales and later as a Senior Research Scientist at Columbia University. At Thorlabs, Henry helps new customers find solutions to their imaging needs and provides technical support for existing customers.

Melissa Eberle is a Regional Sales Manager at Thorlabs Imaging Systems. Dr. Eberle received her BS in Bioengineering from UC Santa Cruz and her PhD in Bioengineering from UC Riverside. After her graduate work, she did a postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University before joining Thorlabs as an Applications Specialist.

Martin Parker is responsible for the development of Thorlabs' cameras,
camera software, and related accessories. Involved in electronic imaging his entire career, Martin started off as a member of the Eastman Kodak Company research labs. While there, he developed image sensor noise analysis hardware, designed imaging subsystems for a number of products including photographic print and motion picture film scanners, and led the development of an encryption-based image authentication product as well as an early prototype JPEG2000 encoder for cameras. Martin then joined DVC company, a manufacturer of scientific digital cameras, as engineering manager, where he led a rapid expansion of the camera product line before DVC was acquired by Thorlabs in 2011. Martin holds an MSEE from the University of Rochester and a BSEE from the University at Buffalo.

Dr. Reza Salem completed his undergrad degree in Electrical Engineering at Sharif University of Technology in 2001. He received his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland in 2006, where he worked under the supervision of Professor Thomas Murphy. His Ph.D. research included the experimental study of nonlinear optical devices for high-speed optical communication systems. Up until 2009, Reza was a postdoctoral researcher with Professor Gaeta in the Quantum and Nonlinear Photonics research group at Cornell University, where he worked on nonlinear silicon waveguide devices and ultrafast optical signal processing. While at Cornell, Dr. Salem cofounded PicoLuz with Professors Gaeta and Lipson to commercialize the time-lens technology. He joined Thorlabs as our Fiber Laser Division Manager in 2013. Reza has authored or co-author more than 50 journal and conference papers and several US and international patents.

David Gardner has been with Thorlabs for almost 10 years and is currently working as a Senior Process Engineer. Within his role, Dave leads the development and production of our fluoride fiber while also supporting the characterization, testing, and R&D for our silica and fluoride manufacturing teams. Dave also plays a major role in the development of new fiber products and processes.

Craig Szymanski is a Life Science Applications Specialist at Thorlabs Imaging Systems. He has 18 years of microscopy experience with a variety of imaging modalities, including optical, electron, and x-ray. He provides training and support for customers as well as Thorlabs employees on confocal, multiphoton, and other imaging platforms.

Over his career, Bradley Alger, Professor Emeritus of Physiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM), has published over 100 research articles, including the discovery of retrograde signaling in the mammalian brain, which is mediated by endogenous cannabinoids, the brain’s own marijuana. He is also the author of Defense of the Scientific Hypothesis: From Reproducibility Crisis to Big Data, a book published by Oxford University Press in 2019.  After completing his undergraduate work at the University of California, Berkeley in 1972, Alger went on to obtain his doctorate in Research and Experimental Psychology from Harvard University in 1977. As Roger Nicoll's first postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Francisco, Alger performed electrophysiological studies on the regulation of inhibitory synaptic transmission in in vitro hippocampal slices. After UCSF, Alger joined the Department of Physiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) and remained there until retiring from active duties as Professor in 2014. 

Dr. Spagnolo serves as the director of the PolySense Lab, a joint research
lab formed by Thorlabs and the Technical University of Bari. Within that role, he guides a team devoted to the development and implementation of novel gas sensing techniques and the realization of highly sensitive trace-gas sensors. Spagnolo obtained his Ph.D. in physics in 1994 from the University of Bari and worked as a researcher for the National Institute of the Physics of Matter (INFM) from 1997 to 1999. Since 2004, he has been at the Technical University of Bari, formerly as an assistant and associate professor and, starting in 2018, as Full Professor of Applied Physics. In 2019, he became Vice-Rector of the Technical University of Bari, deputy to Technology Transfer. He is also a “Hundred Talent” visiting professor at Shanxi University in Taiyuan (China).

Prof. Spagnolo’s research activities have been documented by more than 210 Scopus publications and include three filed patents. He has given more than 50 invited/keynote presentations at international conferences and workshops. Prof. Spagnolo serves as a reviewer of photonics and sensing-related projects for EU-COST, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Austrian Science Fund, Dutch Research Council (NWO), and as the Italian minister of Research and Italian Minister of Defense. He is editor of Sensors (MPDI), Applied Science (MPDI), and Journal of Sensors (Hindawi) and guest editor of Photoacoustics (Elsevier). Prof. Spagnolo is a program committee member of several SPIE and OSA conferences, a fellow member of SPIE, and a senior member of the OSA.

In his current role, Scott Domingue oversees Thorlabs’ engineering
group responsible for designing and engineering laser systems to suit the specific needs of the life science community. Having previously worked at KMLabs, whose Yb-fiber-based laser products are now a part of the Thorlabs product family, he developed a 3-photon laser system, the Y-Fi™ Optical Parametric Amplifier (OPA). Scott's work bridges the gap between the technologies developed in laser and biophysics laboratories and the real-world photonics needs of the life science community, with an emphasis on ultrafast imaging and spectroscopy. Scott holds a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from Colorado State University, where he also worked as a Post-Doctoral Researcher developing a visible, two-color fs laser system along with a transient absorption microscope.

Dr. Leitner studied physics at the University of Graz, Austria. He began working with OCT systems in 2006 while pursuing his Ph.D. at the Universities of Porto, Portugal and Kent, United Kingdom. From 2010 to 2013, Dr. Leitner headed the OCT group at the Research Center for Non-Destructive Testing in Linz, Austria before joining Thorlabs in 2013. Today he is the Product Manager and Sales Manager for OCT at Thorlabs.

Jason Mills is the General Manager of Thorlabs Scientific Imaging in Austin, Texas. He holds an MBA and has been with Thorlabs for over 20 years, holding various roles within the organization. Some of his previous positions include General Manager of the Motion Control and Vibration Isolation Division in Ely, UK, Fiber Business Unit Leader, Web Development Manager, Motion Control Business Unit Leader, and Mechanical Design Engineer.

Joel White is a customer support engineer focusing on optical tables. Located at Thorlabs Ltd. in Ely, UK, Joel has supported Thorlabs products for more than three years, and received his B.Sc. in Physics from the University of Bristol.

Sönke Oswald studied physical chemistry at the University of Göttingen in Germany and focused during his Ph.D. on vibrational and rotational spectroscopy methods for gaining further insight into the electronic structures of weak hydrogen bonds. He joined Thorlabs in 2020 as a technical support engineer, with a focus on spectroscopy.

James “Adam” Fisher earned a B.S. in Physics from the University of South Carolina (USC) and is currently pursuing an MBA with a focus on Innovation. In 2015, Mr. Fisher joined MagAssemble, a start-up company spun out of research conducted at USC’s Department of Physics and Astronomy. This technology was ultimately acquired by Cirtemo, a developer of Multivariate Optical Computing/Element (MOC/MOE) technology. Cirtemo was acquired by Thorlabs in May of 2019, becoming Thorlabs Spectral Works (TSW). Located in Columbia, SC, Adam is currently the Team Lead at TSW, where he is leading engineering efforts to develop the next generation of MOE systems.

Dr. Yat Hei Lo is the leader of the liquid crystal (LC) product development group at Thorlabs in Shanghai, China. The LC group designs and develops a wide variety of polarization optics and devices, from simple variable retarders and optical shutters to tunable filters, laser stabilizers, polarization imaging devices, and spatial light modulators. Dr. Lo received his Ph.D. from the University of Auckland, New Zealand in 2009, and worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Hong Kong during 2009 to 2013. His background includes Polarization Optics, Interferometry, Spectroscopy, Imaging, and Modeling.  

Jack Cater, M.Sc. in Physics, has supported Thorlabs’ extensive portfolio from Thorlabs Ltd. in Ely, UK, for nearly 2 years.

Dr. Borgentun is part of the development team behind Thorlabs’ optical spectrum analyzers. He received his Ph.D. from Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg in 2012, where he designed and built widely tunable semiconductor disk lasers. After a few years of developing custom lasers for space applications at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, he moved back to Sweden and joined the spectroscopy team at Thorlabs. Dr. Borgentun has published several peer-reviewed articles and has received numerous awards, including the JPL Outstanding Postdoctoral Research Award and a NASA Group Achievement Award.

Dr. Renlong Gao is the manager of the R&D and Manufacturing Department for Thorlabs’ Piezo Business Unit in Shanghai, China. He received his Ph.D. from Tsinghua University in 2015 for his doctoral thesis focused on lead-free piezoelectric ceramic materials and multilayer devices. He and his group have designed and produced over 100 kinds of piezo actuator components and piezo motion control devices for Thorlabs’ portfolio.

Dr. Jens Küchenmeister is the leader of Thorlabs‘ Educational Products business unit. He received his Ph.D. from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany where his doctoral thesis focused on the numerical solution of Maxwell’s equations in nanostructured systems. His high motivation for teaching physics, demonstrated by numerous voluntary teaching assignments, led him to Thorlabs, where he has been growing the educational business unit since 2013.