Henk Leeuwis (Vice-President, Strategy and Innovation) obtained his MSc degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of Twente. He has been active in micro/nano system technology for over 35 years. In January 2002, he became Executive VP at LioniX BV (since 2016 LioniX International BV) and, since 2012, he is Vice-President Strategy and Innovation. He has been and is active in numerous European programs as project leader for RTD projects and as proposal evaluator. He is Honorary Founder of the Dutch Micro/Nano Technology Association MinacNed and is involved in numerous governmental task forces and committees. Henk is active in business development for lab-on-chip technology over the last 25 years including collaborations with biotech, pharma and medical partners. He is one of the initiators in establishing an ecosystem in the area of Personalized Medicine and Companion Diagnostics in the Netherlands.

Ugo Drieux (Sales Engineer) received a Master’s degree in Applied Physics from the Denis Diderot Engineering School of the University of Paris in 2019. He is now part of OptoSigma’s team responsible for customers relationship and custom project handling. He is also a master’s intermittent professor at the University of Paris for Business and corporate integration.

Oliver Pfuhl (Optical Engineer) received a Ph.D. degree in Astronomy from the Ludwig-Maximilian-University, Munich in 2012. From 2012 to 2019, he spent a Post-Doc at the Max-Planck Institute for extraterrestrial Physics in the group of Reinhard Genzel (Nobel Laureate 2020). He played a leading role in the development of the GRAVITY interferometer and the observation of the supermassive black hole at the center of our Galaxy. In 2016, he received the MERAC prize of the European Astronomical Society for his contributions to astronomical instrumentation. Since 2019, Oliver is working at the European Southern Observatory as an Optical Engineer and Researcher, with a special focus on the development of photonic components for ground based astronomy.

Master in Business Management from IESE Business School (2023) and Telecommunication Engineer (2003) and PhD (2016) from the Universidad Politècnica de València. After five years involved in R&D activities as a researcher in photonics, in 2006 he joined the spin-off company DAS Photonics, participating from its incubation process up to the present, now as Chief of Technology Officer and member of the Management Committee. He coordinates the technical activities of the company and leads different projects in Photonic Integrated Circuits and Microwave Photonic systems for Space and Defence applications. The degree of innovation of the company has been recognized worldwide by the mayor stakeholders achieving unique milestones in the markets of SATCOM and Electronic Warfare electronic intelligence. In parallel, he works as external expert assisting the European Commission in the Research and Innovation programs.

Martin Roth (Professor) is a Professor at the Institute for Physics and Astronomy, University of Potsdam, since 2011. Since 2009, Martin has been the Chair of innoFSPEC Potsdam. He served as Research Assistant in Universitäts-Sternwarte München from 1986 to 1991. He then became an Observer at Wendelstein Observatory in 1991. He moved to AIP in 1994 and has worked there up to now as Staff Astronomer and Head of Program.

Frank Smyth (Co-Founder and CTO) graduated with a PhD from Dublin City University in 2009 having carried out pioneering research on novel tunable laser sources and optical switching systems. He held a scholarship position at Bell Laboratories, Crawford Hill, New Jersey, and a research fellowship at Dublin City University before founding Pilot Photonics in 2011. Frank has raised more than €10M of VC investment and research funding to develop Pilot Photonics’ unique technology including winning the prestigious European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator award. Listed in the inaugural “Photonics 100” list of innovators in the photonics industry he has co-authored more than 100 research publications, contributed to nine patent applications, and served as an expert reviewer in photonics and optical communication for the Journal of Lightwave Technology, and the European Commission. He currently serves as a member of the Industry Advisory Board of the CONNECT Research Centre at Trinity College Dublin.

Hakimeh Mohammadhosseini (Photonics Technical Lead) is the Photonics Technical Lead Engineer at Antwerp Space, working on PICbased solutions for satellite radar, RF communication and laser communication applications. She received the M.Sc. degree in Photonics in 2013, followed by a Ph.D. degree in Photonic Integrated Circuits (PIC) in 2018 from University of Aarhus, Denmark. She was a visiting researcher at Gent Photonics Research Group during 2015 and 2018. Currently she works on PICbased solutions and it’s applications in Q/V band frequency convertors, photonic lantern receivers, spaceborne SCORE Radar receivers, and Quantum Random Number Generators (QRNG). Hakimeh is an early career member of Optica and coordinates ESA Young Space Optic Professional Group (YSOP). She is also a committee member of International Conference on Space Optics (ICSO) 2022.

Jason Palidwar (Product Group Manager) joined Iridian in 2006 and has over 20 years of experience working with thin film optical filters. He has developed filter specifications together with Iridian’s customers to optimize solutions for a wide range of technical and commercial needs in applications such as telecom, Raman spectroscopy, fluorescence microscopy, 3D entertainment, and IR remote sensing. Recently, as Product Group Manager of Aerospace and Specialty Optics, his focus has been on optical filters for use in satcom (optical intersatellite link filters and solar rejection windows) and earth observation including multi spectral filter arrays. Jason has an MSc in Physics from McMaster University.

Marta de la Fuente (CTO) holds an MS in Physics from the University of Valladolid (Spain). In 1987, she joined Indra where she worked as optical engineer and then became responsible of the Optics Group. In 2017, she joined ASE Optics Europe as CTO, leading design and development projects. Her expertise is optical design but she has a good background in image processing and the Defense and Security market. Marta is author of 30 papers and 1 patent and in 2020 she was recognized as SPIE Fellow for her achievements in optical design. She has been jury of Prism Award for the period 2010 – 2012. She was co-founder of SECPhO in 2009 and member of its Executive Committee until 2013. She has been Elected Director at SPIE BoD for the terms 2008 – 2010 & 2019 – 2021.

Matthias Beier (CEO & Co-Founder) graduated from Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena in 2017 with a PhD in Optical Engineering, working on the development and fabrication of optical imaging systems based on metallic mirrors. After working as a research scientist at Zeiss SMT on EUV Optics Manufacturing in 2017 and leading a research group at Fraunhofer IOF for ultra-precise fabrication and metrology processes for high-quality metal optical systems for space and astronomy from 2018 to 2020, he co-founded SPACEOPTIX GmbH as a spin-off from the Fraunhofer institute in 2020 and is currently leading the company as CEO. His interests include optical manufacturing and testing technologies as well as system engineering aspects, with a special interest in freeform optical systems. He was and is currently involved in the development and realization of numerous optical systems for commercial and scientific space applications and terrestrial telescopes.

Alan Naughton (Lead Photonic Integration Engineer) received his PhD in Physics from University College Cork, Ireland in 2014. He is currently the Lead photonic integration engineer at MBRYONICS with over 12 years’ experience in academia and industry at the forefront of photonics development. His work at MBRYONICS is focused on the development of novel photonic packages and scalable packaging processes for both space and terrestrial applications with a particular focus the development of photonic transceivers along with wider photonic systems and architectures which leverage PICs. Before joining MBRYONICS, Alan was a research scientist and project manager in the Photonics Packaging and Photonic systems groups at Tyndall National Institute where he worked on a wide range of PIC packaging and integration projects such as optical communications, sensing and medical devices with a particular focus on the packaging of photonic integrated circuits, micro-optics and the development of packages for space applications.

Bertrand Dauchelle (Application Engineer) is Application Engineer at Glenair for France. Product portfolio contains all Glenair harsh environment and mission critical interconnect solutions including copper and Fiber Optics based products. Bertrand has a technical background in this industry for over 17 years.

Qin Wang (Professor) received her Ph.D. degree in solid state physics at Lund University in Sweden in 1999. Now, she is a senior expert and project manager at RISE working on high performance optoelectronic devices for imaging, sensing and optical communication applications. She has experience working with EU projects from FP5 to EU H2020, and has been involved in Q-switch, Labels, Iphobac, Odin, Sandra, Technet_Nano, NoCaTs, C3PO, CAMART2, UltimateGaN, All2GaN, Opera, PhotonHub and iFLOWS projects. She is the author or co-author of more than 100 papers. She is a board Member of IEEE Photonics Sweden.

Jérôme Bourguignon (Product Marketing Principal Engineer) is in charge of EMEA product marketing activities of Microchip for the Aerospace and Defense market since 2018 covering mainly MCUs, Communication Interfaces and Memories. He is also covering Business Development activities in Europe for the whole Microchip Space portfolio. Previously, he started his career at STMicroelectronics covering first, technical, and then, marketing activities for Discrete products from 2002 to 2018.

Victor Fernandez Laguna (Senior Photonics Engineer) works as a Senior Photonics Engineer at Communications Products Group, part of Airbus Space Systems division. He started his research in photonics in 2011 at the RF & Photonics Research Lab group at the University of Malaga, where he worked in silicon photonic waveguides with sub-wavelength features for biosensing applications, from which he was awarded the best MSc thesis dissertation. He followed with a PhD at University College London (UCL) in nonlinear pulsed dynamics in silicon and diamond photonic nanostructures. Victor has more than 10 years of industrial experience, most of these in the field of intra-satellite photonics. Victor is a member of the Space Photonics Unified Roadmap (SPUR) initiative at Airbus Space Systems and member of EPIC Space Technology Advisory Committee.

Mehdi Naamoun (CTO), PhD in materials physics, trained in an internationally renowned laboratory in Paris, has been immersed in the field of diamond and CVD growth for almost 15 years now. He is an expert in CVD diamond growth (which was the subject of his PhD thesis) and his scientific contribution has been valued by numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals and 5 international patents. During his various experiences, Mehdi has acquired a unique expertise combining the industrialization of diamond growth for various high-tech applications as well as a deep knowledge of the jewelry and watch manufacturing market. Today, he is the co-founder and CTO of the company PROUD (EPFL spin-off).

Peter Andrekson (Professor) received his PhD in 1988 and is a professor of photonics since 2000. Currently, he is head of the Photonics Laboratory at Chalmers and director of the FORCE center. He has spent 7 years in the USA (Bell Labs, Cenix Inc., Lehigh University). He co-founded and was the CEO of the optical test & measurement company Picosolve Inc., now part of EXFO. Andrekson is a Fellow of OSA, IEEE and the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences. He is author of over five hundred scientific publications and conference papers in the area of optical communications, including four tutorials at the Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC). He is or has served on several technical program committees, and has also twice served as an expert for the evaluation of the Nobel Prize in Physics. He held an ERC Advanced Grant for work on phase-sensitive optical amplifiers (2012-2017), has participated in several EU projects, and is currently a distinguished professor by the Swedish Research Council (VR).

Eli Ayi-Yovo (Photonics Engineer) received a PhD in integrated optics in 2017 from Université Grenoble Alpes. His work on an electro-optic module for high-speed communication was a collaboration between STMicroelectronics and IMEP-LAHC laboratory. Eli is a photonics engineer at CSA Catapult and works on photonics integrated circuit design and test.

Thierry Berthou (Sales Manager) received M.Sc. in Optics and Engineering degrees from the Ecole Centrale Marseille in 1990. Since 2005, he is in charge of sales and business development for Diffractive Optics and Multispectral Imaging products, the 2 micro-optics product lines of the company. Previously he’s been involved in a wide range of domains such as optical instrumentation, meteorological instrumentation, radio-spectrum monitoring and electronic warfare, smart cards and microelectronics industries for 15 years.

Christophe Pache (Group Leader - Sensing & Control) is responsible for a group of 13 engineers active in system design with a focus on LiDARs, systems control and mechatronics at CSEM. He received his M.Sc. degree in Microengineering in 2008 and his PhD in biomedical imaging in 2012, both from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. From 2013 to 2020, he worked as system engineer and project manager for the development of LiDARs and optical systems in general, first in a start-up company and since 2015, at CSEM.

Bavo Delauré (Project Manager) is the project leader for space related developments at imec in the domain of on-chip spectral imaging. He received a Ph.D. in Physics in 2004 from the KULeuven. He has 16 years of experience in the development of compact multi-and hyperspectral payloads for earth observation from UAV’s and small satellites at VITO Remote Sensing (B). In 2021 he joined imec and currently he is driving the space projects at imec related to on-chip spectral imaging. The unique technique developed at imec to deposit optical filters at wafer level allows to create imaging chips with spatially patterned optical filters in various forms including but not limited to line-based or mosaic like geometries.

Keval Dattani (Founder & CEO) is a chartered engineer from Imperial College (Nuclear and Mechanical Engineering MEng) specialising in technology R&D and manufacturing, starting his career in nuclear reactor design and manufacture at Rolls-Royce. He has since worked on the STEP fusion reactor at UKAEA before founding Space Power Ltd.

Guillaume Lecamp (Head of Space Activities) graduated in 2003 from Institut d’Optique Graduate School. Then, he prepared a PhD in electromagnetic modelisation in nanostructures in the Laboratoire Charles Fabry (Philippe Lalanne’s team). Guillaume moved to industrial R&D as research engineer at Saint-Gobain Recherche in 2007. He worked for Saint-Gobain in various position as project leader, head of metrology and business unit director. In 2019, he started working for Exail as Head of Space Activities where he is in charge of the design, the qualification and the production of various equipment for space navigation. It includes Inertial Navigation Systems (INS) for launchers and among them Ariane 5; high performances gyroscopes for satellites in partnership with Airbus Defence and Space and more recently New Space equipment.