Meet the expert presenters who are bringing innovative and industry-leading content to the Phosphors & Quantum Dots Industry Forum Online program.
This year's online program will feature programming focused around the latest research and commercial developments within each material sector, as well as more collaborative, material inclusive content - designed to identify and address the shared industry challenges, complementary solutions, and emerging lighting and display applications that are relevant to the entire value chain.
New speakers will be added as they are confirmed!
Dr. Yu-Ho Won received a Ph.D. degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Purdue University in 2011. Since joining Samsung Electronics in 2012, she has been working on the development and synthesis of eco-friendly colloidal quantum dots. Her current research focuses on quantum dots for light-emitting diode application.
Jason Hartlove joined Nanosys in 2008 with a proven track record of turning emerging technologies into successful commercial products. He previously developed the Optical Mouse which has sold more than one billion units worldwide and is a standard feature in all PCs. Hartlove also pioneered and developed key technologies used in CMOS image sensors in smartphone cameras, high capacity lithium-ion battery technologies and solid-state inverter technology used in solar and electric car charging systems.
His vision for Nanosys has led the company to successfully pioneer and develop Quantum Dot based display technologies. Today, Nanosys maintains a nearly 100% market share for materials used in these ultra-bright displays with lifelike colors sold by companies including Samsung, Vizio, Hisense, TCL, Acer, Asus and Sharp.
Prior to joining Nanosys, he was president of the Imaging Solutions Division of MagnaChip Semiconductor in Seoul, South Korea, where he turned an internally focused semiconductor group into a multinational company on track for an IPO. Before MagnaChip, Hartlove was vice president and general manager of the Sensor Solutions Division of Agilent Technologies, and previously held management and development positions at Hewlett-Packard.
Juanita Kurtin is Director of Materials Research for OSRAM Opto Semiconductors. Prior to 2018, Dr. Kurtin was the CTO and co-founder of Pacific Light Technologies (PLT), an Oregon start-up company delivering high quality nanomaterials to the solid-state lighting and display markets in order to increase LED efficiency and brightness. She has a background in the research of nanomaterials for various device applications, including transistors, solar cells, and light emitting diodes.
Prior to founding PLT, Dr. Kurtin was the VP of R&D at SpectraWatt, a solar cell manufacturing company, and also spent six years developing new device architectures at Intel.
Dr. Kurtin obtained her BS degree in Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and her PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley, studying with quantum dot pioneer Dr. Paul Alivisatos.
Dr. Wenyong Liu received his Ph.D. from Chemistry Department of University of Chicago in 2014, mainly working on III-V quantum dots synthesis and its opto-electronic applications. And then he pursued his postdoc in Los Alamos National Lab until 2016, focusing on magnetic doped quantum dots and the relationship between exciton and external magnetic field. Currently, he works in TCL research as novel display expert, aiming at optimizing the lifetime, external quantum efficiency (EQE) and reproducibility of quantum dots light emitting diodes (QLEDs).
Dr. Liu has a long time experience on high quality quantum dots synthesis, especially for opto- & electro-luminescence applications. He is the first to achieve the large scale production of Cd-free quantum dots with high quality. And he also significantly boosted the QLEDs lifetime for Cd-based quantum dots with T95 of blue and red above 100 and 4000 hours at 1000 nits, respectively, both of which are one of best so far among reported results.
After obtaining her Masters in Nanomaterials cum-laude from Utrecht University (Utrecht, the Netherlands) in 2011, Dr. Van de Haar joined the group of Prof. Albert Polman at the physics research institute AMOLF (Amsterdam, the Netherlands), from where she obtained her PhD in Nanophotonics in 2016. She then moved to Seaborough as Project Manager and Materials Scientist, where she worked on developing new luminescent material systems for LED applications. Currently she is responsible for the Materials Group at Seaborough as Program Director Materials
Yang Qu was born in Hangzhou, China in 1989.
He received B.S.E. degree in Light-industry Chemistry from Zhejiang Sci-tech University, China, in 2011. He then moved to Yokohama, Japan, completed his M.S.E and Ph. D in Organic Electro-chemistry from Yokohama National University, in 2015 and 2018, respectively.
He joined Sharp Corporation Japan, Tenri, Japan where he worked on developing device fabrication process of QD-LEDs since 2018.
Norman earned his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) after completing his materials engineering education in Zurich and Sydney/Australia. During his education Norman has developed several patent protected materials and processes. He is winner of the Quadrant Award and the ETH medal for the best doctoral thesis. Norman is in charge for the materials development at Avantama.
Sjoerd has fifteen years of experience in business development, R&D, and management of scientific research projects in the fields of nanotechnology, photovoltaics, photonics, and photodetectors leveraging extensive laboratory experience in industry and research institutes. He was the Principal Scientist and Manager of R&D at InVisage Technologies Inc., a quantum dot-based imaging product company sold to Apple Inc. in 2017. He was the Director of Research, Technology and Innovation at the University of Toronto. He was awarded a Top 50 Scientific Discoveries by NSERC for the development of a solution-processed infrared laser. Sjoerd has an MSC in physics from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and a PhD in laser physics from the University of Southampton. He has authored over 160 scientific publications and 10 patents.
Khaled Ahmed is a Senior Principal Engineer at Intel. Dr. Ahmed joined Intel in 2015 and previously worked at Intermolecular, Applied Materials, Conexant Systems, and Advanced Micro Devices. He has 125+ patents (pending and granted) in areas such as semiconductor equipment, thin films, device metrology, light emitting diodes, thin film transistors, microdevice transfer technology, laser speckle reduction, and metasurface optical elements. Dr. Ahmed earned BSc and MSc degrees Ain Shams University, and Doctor of Philosophy degree from North Carolina State University, all in Electrical Engineering. Dr. Ahmed currently leads the definition of industry leading disruptive display technologies including micro LED displays. Dr. Ahmed is a recipient of the Semiconductor Research Corporation's Mahboob Khan Best Industry Liaison Award in 2012. Khaled serves on the technical program committee of Display Week, the premier display technology conference. He is a senior member of the IEEE. Khaled was a visiting scholar at the Penn State University, University of California San Diego, Georgia Institute of Technology, and University of Southern California. He collaborated with several university research groups at Purdue University, IIT Bombay, Technion, University of California San Diego, US Santa Barbara, and the Penn State University.
Willem Walravens is co-founder and CTO at QustomDot, an advanced materials start-up that develops on-chip grade and RoHS-compliant quantum dots for the display market. Prior to joining QustomDot, Dr. Walravens obtained his PhD degree in chemistry in 2019 under the supervision of Dr. Zeger Hens. During his studies, he developed expertise in the synthesis and characterization of quantum dots. His work initially focused on PbS and PbSe infrared absorbing quantum dots that have applications in photoelectric devices. This work has led to several peer-reviewed publications in high-impact journals. During the last year of his doctoral study, his focus shifted towards the visible spectrum and he became actively involved in several projects related to highly luminescent InP QDs. As co-founder of QustomDot, Willem Walravens now leads the technical developments as chief technology officer (CTO). Together with a strong team, he aims to bring the unique on-chip quantum dot technology of QustomDot to the market.
Dr. Cohen joined the lighting division of General Electric after receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 2000. He has developed a variety of experiences through roles of increasing responsibility in Technology, Manufacturing, and Business Operations that include phosphors and specialty materials development, lighting product design and manufacturing, tungsten wire processing, and commercial sales of phosphors and specialty materials. Dr. Cohen has significant operational experience built on various key roles over nine years in manufacturing including Plant Manager of GE Lighting’s Phosphor and Specialty Chemical Facility. He led GE Lighting’s technical efforts to mitigate rare earth supply and inflation pressures through phosphor innovation, lighting product redesign, and production process optimization for fluorescent lighting products.
Transitioning from traditional lighting materials to LED materials, Dr. Cohen led GE Lighting’s PFS/KSF Red Phosphor innovation, process/manufacturing development, and sales/commercialization activities. After GE’s sale of its commercial lighting business to American Industrial Partners in 2019, he continues as the business leader of the specialty Chemicals and Materials group of Current Lighting Solutions, LLC focused on technical innovation and profitable commercial growth of phosphors and other specialty materials.
Freddy Rabouw studied chemistry and did his PhD at Utrecht University, Netherlands, with Daniel Vanmaekelbergh and Andries Meijerink. He worked as a postdoc in the group of David Norris at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Since 2018, he has returned to Utrecht University as an assistant professor. He focuses on optical micro-/spectroscopy to understand energy, charge, and mass flow at the nanoscale. Lanthanide-doped nanophosphors have always been an important pillar of his research.
Rong-Jun Xie obtained his PhD in Inorganic Non-metallic Materials at Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academic of Science in 1998. After carrying out post-doctoral work at National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS, Japan), National Institute for Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST, Japan), and Alexander von Humboldt (AvH) research fellow at Darmstadt University of Technology (Germany), Xie joined National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) as a Senior Researcher in 2003, and was promoted to Principal Researcher in 2007 and to Chief Research in 2017. In 2018, he moved to Xiamen University as a full professor at College of Materials.
Xie’s research interests include (i) phosphors for lighting and displays; (ii) mechanoluminescent materials for sensing technologies; (iii) near-infrared phosphors for security; and (iv) quantum dots and emissive displays. He has contributed to over 230 published papers and over 60 invited talks, and held 45 patents.
Hunter McDaniel, PhD is UbiQD’s Founder and CEO. He transitioned from a postdoc position at Los Alamos National Laboratory to the company’s first full-time employee in 2014. His vision for the company is to become the worldwide leader in quantum dot manufacturing by enabling new products that aren’t possible with toxic CdSe or InP QDs. He has extensive relevant technical experience as he has worked on both traditional II-VI QDs (including those that contain cadmium) and I-III-VI QDs. During his career, Dr. McDaniel conducted research at top-tier research institutions; Los Alamos National Laboratory (postdoc 2011-2014), Argonne National Laboratory (2011), University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (PhD 2006-2011), and University of California at Santa Barbara (BS 2001-2006)). He is highly experienced in the materials science of semiconductor nanocrystals and their optoelectronic device applications (e.g., solar cells, LEDs) with over twenty research publications and more than 700 citations.
Jax Lee founded Nanolumi in 2018 with over 10 years of experience turning emerging advanced materials into successful commercial products in consumer displays, touch displays, and photovoltaic.
Prior to founding Nanolumi, Jax was Business Development Director at Cima NanoTech, an advanced material company with over 100 patents for self-assembling nanoparticles, dispersion formulation and the manufacturing of highly conductive transparent conductors. During his 6 years at Cima, Jax led the commercialisation of SANTE® Technology, bringing it from the lab to mass production for large format projected capacitive touch screens. By successfully negotiating and establishing a joint venture partnership with Foxconn to manufacture large touch modules, Jax accelerated Cima’s business and kickstarted a series of joint development programs with international material companies. Before Cima, Jax led the set-up of a greenfield manufacturing plant for CdTe thin-film photovoltaic for WK Solar in both Singapore and China.
Jax brings his tenacity for work into his personal life, successfully climbing to the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro in 2013 and Huayna Potosi, Bolivia in 2017. In his leisure time, Jax enjoys spending time with his wife and two children, scuba diving, skiing, hiking, and is always up for a nice, cold glass of whiskey.
Robert J (Bob) O’Brien is Co-Founder and President of DSCC. Bob has decades of experience turning market and business analysis into strategic insights in the display and electronics industries. As Director of Market Intelligence and Strategy for Corning Glass Technologies, Bob developed an intelligence infrastructure to inform pricing strategy, product development, marketing communications and customer service strategy. He also developed external communications for investors and customers to realize Corning’s industry leading position.
Bob led the CGT intelligence team in building critical tools for analysis of both short- and long-term dynamics in the LCD industry. In response to Corning’s vulnerability to supply/demand swings, Bob developed an analytical model for predicting glass demand based on the supply/demand dynamics of the LCD value chain. The output of this model is frequently quoted in Corning’s earnings release and other communications. To increase understanding of the long-term dynamics of TV replacement, Bob led the efforts on consumer survey work to understand the replacement cycle of TV. As the cover glass market matured, Bob led the effort to explore and develop the Gorilla glass business in emerging markets.
Bob holds a BS in Applied and Engineering Physics from Cornell University & an MBA from the University of Michigan Business School. He lives in Ann Arbor, MI with his wife Mattie & 3 sons. He can be reached at bob.obrien@displaysupplychain.com.
Professor Ru-Shi Liu received his Bachelor degree in Chemistry from Soochow University (Taiwan) in 1981. He got his Master Degree in nuclear science from the National Tsing Hua University (Taiwan) in 1983. He obtained two Ph.D. degrees in Chemistry from National Tsing Hua University in 1990 and from the University of Cambridge in 1992. He joined Materials Research Laboratories at Industrial Technology Research Institute as an Associate Researcher, Research Scientist, Senior Research Scientist and Research Manager from 1983 to 1995. Then he became an Associate Professor at the Department of Chemistry of the National Taiwan University from 1995 to 1999. Then he promoted as a Professor in 1999. In July 2016, he became the Distinguished Professor.
He got the Excellent Young Person Prize in 1989, Excellent Inventor Award (Argentine Medal) in 1995 and Excellent Young Chemist Award in 1998. He got the 9th Y. Z. Hsu scientific paper award due to the excellent energy saving research in 2011. He received the Ministry of Science and Technology award for distinguished research in 2013 and 2018. In 2015, he received the distinguished award for Novel and Synthesis by IUPAC & NMS. In 2017, he got the Chung-Shang Academic paper award. His research is concerning in the Materials Chemistry. He got 2018 Highly Cited Researchers by Clarivate Analytics.
He is the author and co-author of more than 560 publications in scientific international journals.
Speaker biography coming soon.
Dr. Klem received his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Toronto where his work with colloidal quantum dots contributed to the world's first demonstration of an infrared photovoltaic effect from PbS colloidal quantum dots. He has over 17 years of experience developing quantum dot-based optoelectronic devices. In 2018 he co-founded SWIR Vision Systems where he serves as Chief Technology Officer. At SWIR Vision Systems his focus is on commercializing the CQD photodiode technology he co-invented and accelerating the development of the technology for high volume markets. He has authored or co-authored 24 peer-reviewed journal publications, 25 issued patents, 4 pending patent applications, and 18 conference presentations and proceedings.
Kelley Rountree joined RTI International as a reliability and exposure engineer in 2017. At RTI, she serves as the team leader for the modification and environmental stress testing of SSL products on the SSL team. As part of the SSL team, she has been issued one U.S. patent as lead inventor, co-authored over a dozen project reports, and presented five conference posters or presentations. Kelley received a B.S. in chemistry and B.S. in mathematics from the University of Pittsburgh in 2013, and a M.S. in 2016 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she developed a prototype to study energy levels in quantum dots.
Xiaogang Liu earned his B.E. degree (1996) in Chemical Engineering from Beijing Technology and Business University, P. R. China. He received his M. S. degree (1999) in Chemistry from East Carolina University under the direction of Prof. John Sibert. He completed his Ph.D. (2004) at Northwestern University under the supervision of Prof. Chad Mirkin. He then became a postdoctoral fellow in the group of Prof. Francesco Stellacci at MIT. He joined the faculty of the National University of Singapore in 2006. He holds a joint appointment with the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, Agency for Science, Technology and Research. Currently, he sits as an Associate Editor for Nanoscale and serves on the editorial boards of Chemistry - An Asian Journal, Advanced Optical Materials, Journal of Luminescence, and Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. His research encompasses optical nanomaterials and energy transfer and explores the use of luminescent nanocrystals for photocatalysis, sensing and biomedical applications.
As a senior market and technology analyst at Yole Développement, Eric contributes to the development of LED, OLED, and display activities at Yole. He has authored a large collection of market and technology reports as well as multiple custom consulting projects on subjects including business strategy, identification of investments or acquisition targets, due diligence, market and technology analysis, cost modelling and technology scouting. Thanks to his deep knowledge of the LED/OLED and display industries, Eric has spoken at more than 30 industry conferences worldwide over the last five years. He has been interviewed and quoted by leading media all over the world.
Previously Eric has held various R&D, engineering, manufacturing and business development positions with the Fortune 500 Company Saint-Gobain, based in France and the United States.
Dr Eric Virey holds a PhD in Optoelectronics from the National Polytechnic Institute of Grenoble.
With over 10 years of international experience, Itai has gained a broad technical knowledge and leadership skills in chemistry R&D. Itai has led developments of new methods in surface chemistry of nanoparticles, and in novel technologies in the field of semiconductors, focusing on surface chemistry of flat surfaces and self-assembled monolayers. In recent years, Itai has been focusing on R&D of thin film photodetectors.
Itai has gained his Ph.D. from Carl von Ossietzky Universität in Oldenburg, Germany, under the supervision of prof. Jürgen Parisi. His thesis is titled ”Properties tuning of semiconductor nanoparticles through organic and inorganic surface chemistry”.
