Biographies

Lawrie Gloster graduated from the University of Manchester in Physics and went on to complete his Doctorate in Optical Parametric Oscillators and Non-linear Optics in 1995. Following a period of active research as a post-doctorate in air-borne optical sensing with single-frequency tunable lasers, he developed an interest in new gain materials for diode-pump solid-state lasers, which resulted in a number of key publications. In 1997, Lawrie founded Laser Quantum with Steve and Alan and, in his role as Managing Director (CEO), has developed the company into a world-recognised manufacturer of laser technology with sites in the UK, two in Germany and in the USA. He was centrally involved in the acquisition of two other laser companies, Gigaoptics GmbH and Venteon Laser Technology GmbH, to establish a femtosecond laser portfolio for Laser Quantum; and with the development of Laser Quantum’s US operations. Lawrie continues to work closely with the company’s OEMs world-wide.

Steve Lane graduated from the University of Manchester with a 1st class degree in Physics in 1992 and continued his studies at Manchester to complete his Doctorate investigating novel solid-state laser sources in the visible region, based on Cu(I) ions doped into crystalline hosts. He continued this area of research as a post-doctorate at the Laser Research Group with international collaborators in the USA and Japan. In 1997, Steve joined Alan and Lawrie to form the directorial team of Laser Quantum Ltd. Combining strong technical and commercial interests, the team rapidly developed Laser Quantum into the multi-national business it is today. As Operational Director, Steve has driven product manufacturing at Laser Quantum to be technically class-leading, and commercially competitive. Steve has overseen both lean and six-sigma initiatives to achieve internationally-recognised quality standards across the product range.

Alan Cox graduated from the University of Manchester with a 1st class degree in Physics with Electronics and went on to complete his Doctorate in the Laser Phonics Group at Manchester working on 3D holographic data storage. Alan’s post-doctoral research focussed on new gain materials for diode pumped solid state lasers, before going on to establish a newly founded Laser Quantum Ltd with Steve and Lawrie. Alan became the Technical Director of Laser Quantum and grew the R&D team that has been responsible for the design of Laser Quantum’s whole CW product portfolio. This includes optical design, electronic design and CAD functions. The Ultrafast range of products, following the purchase of Gigaoptics GmbH and Venteon Laser Technology GmbH, have subsequently been mechanically redesigned in order to benefit from Laser Quantum’s 20 years of product design experience to ensure they meet the product lifetime expectations of many of Laser Quantum’s OEM partners.

Andrew Charlton graduated from Oxford University with a 1st class degree in Physics and a Doctorate in Laser Physics, prior to taking a NATO fellowship at JILA, University of Colorado. In 1989, Andy joined Manchester University where he spent 5 years researching medical applications of lasers before setting up Lynton Lasers, a company currently employing 50 staff, which develops and manufactures a range of medical laser systems and operates aesthetic clinics throughout the UK. In 2010, Andy became non-Executive Chairman of the Lynton Group and joined the Board of Laser Quantum as Executive Director of Human Resources.

Albrecht Bartels graduated from RWTH Aachen University, Germany, with a Diploma in Physics and Doctorate, during which he developed the basis of today’s taccor 1GHz femtosecond Ti:Sapphire laser. Albrecht’s post-doctoral research continued at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado, USA, on frequency comb research. Albrecht’s work involved comb generation with sub-Hertz optical linewidths and accuracies at the 10^-20 level, as well as sub-fs jitter laser stabilisation and ultralow-noise microwave generation using 1GHz Ti:Sapphire lasers. He also took part in the characterisation of some of the most accurate and stable optical atomic clocks to date, including atomic clocks based on single trapped Al and Hg ions. Albrecht has always had a hybrid career, as in parallel to his scientific work he founded Gigaoptics GmbH, now Laser Quantum GmbH, and has continued to lead the business, pioneering the technology of asynchronous optical sampling for femtosecond time-resolved spectroscopy. Albrecht has authored 57 peer-reviewed scientific papers with more than 2200 citations, his h-index is 30.

Thomas Binhammer graduated from the University of Stuttgart, Germany, with a Diploma in Physics and went on to complete his Doctorate at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, Heidelberg, Germany, on the production and use of ultrashort laser pulses. Thomas furthered his research at the University of Hannover, Institute of Quantum Optics as a research associate, coordinating projects in the field of ultrashort pulse lasers. In his professional practice, Thomas was head of development at Nanolayers Optical Coatings GmbH working with ultrashort pulse lasers. In 2008, he became Managing Director of Venteon Laser Technology GmbH, now Laser Quantum, and has continued to develop ‘commercial firsts’ in ultrashort pulse lasers. Thomas has authored 27 peer-reviewed scientific papers with more than 350 citations and his h-index is 13.

Stefan Rausch graduated from the University of Applied Science, Koblenz, Germany, with a Diploma in Physics and Master of Science. As part of his studies, he spent half a year at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA, researching prototypes of a spectral interferometer (SPIDER) for time-and-frequency domain few-cycle laser pulse characterisation and developed his expertise in his professional career as a Student Assistant at the RheinAhrCampus, Remagen. Stefan completed his Doctorate in 2010 in controlling the electric field of few-cycle laser pulse on the cycle-scale at the Institute of Quantum Optics, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany, and furthered his interest in ultrafast lasers, building and developing femtosecond lasers and special characterisation systems at Nanolayers Optical Coatings GmbH. In 2008, he was a founding member of Venteon Laser Technology GmbH, now Laser Quantum, as a product manager in few-cycle laser oscillators and pulse characterisation tools, today he is Technical Director. Stefan has authored 21 peer-reviewed scientific papers with more than 137 citations and his h-index is 7.

Novanta Inc (formerly the GSI Group) is a NASDAQ listed technology supplier of photonics, machine vision and precision motion sub-systems to medical and advanced industrial OEM customers worldwide. Example applications include: 3D printing, robotics, minimally invasive surgery (endoscopy, cataract surgery, robotic surgery) and Life Sciences (DNA sequencing, In Vitro Diagnostics, Microscopy). Matthijs joined the GSI Group in 2012 after an 18-year career with Philips, where he most recently served as Chief Executive Officer of the Entertainment Lighting division. He previously served as Chief Operating Officer of Philips Lumileds, the global LED lighting leader, which he scaled from $250M to $750M in 4 years. Furthermore, Matthijs held various general management positions in multiple Philips business units and also served as Director of Corporate Strategy in the Philips corporate headquarters. Matthijs holds a MBA from INSEAD (Fontainebleau, France), a Master’s Degree in Applied Physics from Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands), as well as an Advanced Engineering Degree in Applied Physics and Electronics from ESPCI in Paris, France. He is also a Board Director at Laser Quantum, a laser source supplier for DNA sequencing and other bio-medical applications.