Milan Brandt is a professor in Advanced Manufacturing in the School of Engineering, Technical Director of Advanced Manufacturing Precinct and Director of RMIT Centre for Additive Manufacturing, RMIT University, Melbourne Australia. Professor Brandt has been involved with lasers and manufacturing technologies professionally for some 38 years and is recognised nationally and internationally as the leading Australian researcher in the field.  He is the recipient of a number of awards and is the author of over 300 publications, 9 book chapters, and two books on additive manufacturing.  He has also commercialised the results of his research through the companies he has helped establish.  

Professor Brandt is a Fellow of LIA. In 2018 he was the president of LIA.  He has had a 36-year association with LIA being involved on the organizing committees for ICALEO and LAM for many years, as well as serving on the LIA Board of Directors. He was also the Senior Editor of JLA in additive manufacture for a number of years.  Milan Brandt was the 2020 Arthur L. Schawlow Award winner.

Dr. E.W. (Ted) Reutzel is Director of Penn State’s Center for Innovative Material Processing through Direct Digital Deposition (CIMP-3D), is an Associate Research Professor at Penn State’s Applied Research Laboratory, and serves as graduate faculty in Penn State’s Engineering Science & Mechanics Department and the Additive Manufacturing & Design Program. Dr. Reutzel has led numerous programs to investigate and implement metal AM, including support for the Navy’s first demonstration of a flight-critical part (Ti6Al4V AM link on the MV-22B Osprey). Current interests include process monitoring for AM process understanding, machine learning for quality control of metal-based AM processes, and process implementation.

Masahiro Tsukamoto got his PhD from the Osaka University Graduate School of Engineering in 1994. His research field was nonlinear scattering of high intensity laser in expanding plasmas from fuel shell of laser nuclear fusion. Assistant professor of Joining and Welding Research Institute, Osaka University from 1994. From 1996 to 1998, he stayed in Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, USA as a visiting scientist and was also postdoctoral fellowship for research abroad of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. Associate professor of Osaka University from 2006.

Professor of Osaka University from 2017. Project leader of “Research and development of the laser coating technology to realize high value-added design and fabrication” in “Innovative Design/Manufacturing Technologies" of Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (2014-2018). Research and development manager of “Development of high intensity blue diode laser for next-generation additive manufacturing” in new energy and industrial technology development organization (NEDO) project “Research and development of next generation laser processing technology (2016-2020).

Verena Wippo works in the Composite Group at the Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V. in Germany. Her main field of activity is the laser welding of unreinforced and fiber reinforced thermoplastics. Ms. Wippo has a diploma in Mechanical Engineering with the focus on Machines, Systems and Automation in Production Engineering and Mechanisms and Robotics. Since July 2019, she is head of the composites group.

Prof. Dr. Constantin Haefner recently joined the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT in Aachen, Germany, as the organization’s executive director. Fraunhofer ILT is one of the premier laser R&D institutions in Europe. He oversees more than 500 employees focused on activities such as the development of new laser beam sources and components and industrial laser processes. Prior, Haefner directed the Advanced Photon Technologies Program at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, USA, where he led the development of high-energy cutting-edge laser systems relevant to scientific research and commercial applications. Haefner and his team pushed the frontiers in developing next generation high peak-power lasers – technologies that are now starting to revolutionize the field. Haefner received his Physics Diploma degree from the University of Constance (1999), and his Ph.D. from the University of Heidelberg, Germany (2003). In 2004 he became Research Assistant Professor and Chief Laser Scientist at the University of Nevada Reno’s Nevada Terawatt Facility. In 2006 he joined LLNL where he has since led the R&D of advanced laser technologies. Haefner won several awards and was elected 2017 to Fellow of OSA for his pioneering work in development of next-generation, high-average-power petawatt laser systems and sustained advancement of state-of-the art laser technologies.

John Lopez was awarded from the French graduate school of Physics and Chemistry of Bordeaux in
1993. He got his PhD on laser ablation of polymers at the University of Bordeaux in 1997. He has a
permanent position as a senior research engineer in the French CNRS since 2001 and he is currently
working in a public institute in the UNIVERSITY OF BORDEAUX (CELIA laboratory). He is known
worldwide as an expert in laser ablation and laser micro machining. His current research topics are
metals and transparent material processing, GHz-burst material processing, beam shaping and laser-
assisted eye surgery. John Lopez is the author of nearly 30 peer-reviewed scientific papers and 90
proceedings. Furthermore, John Lopez is the President of the French association of industrial laser users
called Club Lasers et Procédés since 2010 (CLP); as such he is the general chair of Laser Processing for
industry conference (PLI). He is as well involved as an expert ALPhANOV technology center and on the
board of PHOTONICS FRANCE. He was highly involved in the creation of ALPhANOV in 2007 and he used
to be the Laser Material Processing Business Unit manager in ALPhANOV from 2007 to 2011. He is also a
founding member of the French national committee for laser safety. Finally, John Lopez was a member
of the LIA Board of Directors from 2017 to 2019.

Ya Cheng received his BS degree from Fudan University in 1993 and PhD degree from Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics in 1998. He is currently the Dean of School of Physics and Materials Science, East China Normal University and a Professor of Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics. He is also the founder and director of XXL- The Extreme Optoelectromachanics Lab in China. His research focuses on ultrafast nonlinear photonics and femtosecond laser micromachining. He has co-authored more than 200 papers in peer reviewed journals which have been cited nearly 7,000 times (Database: Web of Science, H-index 42). He is a council member of Chinese Optics Society and a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, UK.

Koji Sugioka is a Team Leader of Advanced Laser Processing Research Team at RIKEN Center for Advanced Photonics. He received B.E., M.E. and Ph.D. degrees in electronics from Waseda University in 1984, 1986 and 1993, respectively. He was awarded the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa from University of Szeged, Hungary in 2018. Sugioka joined RIKEN in 1986. At RIKEN, He has made important contribution to both fundamental researches on laser-matter interactions and diverse applications including practical use in the said area. He is internationally renowned for his works on laser doping, laser etching, laser surface modification, laser-induced selective metallization, microfabrication of transparent materials, VUV laser processing, laser surface nano-structuring, and 3D micro and nano fabrication. In particular, he is known as a leading scientist in the ultrafast laser processing technology. His current research interests include ultrafast laser processing for microfluidic, optofluidic, microelectronic and optoelectronic applications. Sugioka is currently a member of the board of directors of the Laser Institute of America (LIA), Japanese Laser Processing Society (JLPS) and The Japan Society of Laser Technology (JSTL), a council member of the Intl. Academy of Photonics and Laser Engineering (IAPLE), and a Fellow of SPIE, OSA, LIA, and IAPLE. He is also an editor-in-chief of Journal of the Laser Micro/Nanoengineering (JLMN) and an editor of Opto-Electronic Advances (OEA), Nanomaterials, Advanced Optical Technology (AOT), and Int. J. Extreme Manufacturing (IJEM).

Robert Braunschweig received his MS in 1997 from the School of Advanced Processes in Electronics and Optics (ESPEO) in Orleans, France, with a Major in Lasers and Photonics and has been working in the laser industry since then. Robert has been working with ultrafast lasers and their applications for the past 17 years with positions held at High-Q Lasers (now part of MKS), Amplitude Laser and more recently B-Lasers and LASEA Inc., where he is the General Manager since 2016. Robert has co-authored several papers throughout the years, is a long time member of the LIA (as well as board member) and has co-chaired the 2017 ICALEO micro-processing conference.

Eric Mottay graduated from Institut d'Optique near Paris.  ‌In 2001, he founded Amplitude in Bordeaux, France. Under a technology transfer from the University of Bordeaux, and starting from a scientific proof of concept, he developed Amplitude into the leading industrial ultrafast laser manufacturer that it is today. He has presented more than 40 contributions at ICALEO since 2006, is the current General Chair of ICALEO, a fellow of the LIA and a member of the Board of Trustees. He strongly believes that sound engineering and collaborations are the keys to success in Photonics.