Klaus Kleine, currently working at Coherent Inc. as a Senior Director of Applications, is responsible for the management of the global application lab organization at Coherent. Coherent is specialized in the development and production of lasers for industrial and scientific applications. Prior to his assignment with Coherent, Dr. Kleine worked at Laserline as the General Manager for US operations, Guidant, Tsunami Optics, Iridex Corp, DuPont and the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology. Dr. Kleine holds a PhD from the University of Liverpool and MS (Dipl. Ing.) from the Aachen University of Applied Science in Germany. Klaus Kleine holds 20+ patents in laser development, laser processing and medical device design.

Andrés Fabián Lasagni received an MSc degree in Chemical Engineering from National Comahue University, Argentina, in 2002 and a PhD degree in Materials Science from Saarland University, Germany in 2006. From 2007 to 2008, he was a Research Scientist and Alexander von Humboldt Fellow with the Georgia Institute of Technology. From 2008 to 2017, he was a Group Leader with the Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS. Since 2012, he is a professor at the Institute of Manufacturing Technology, at the Technische Universität Dresden, and since 2017 is Director of the Center for Advanced Micro-Photonics (CAMP), in cooperation with Frauhnofer IWS. His research interests include the development of functionalized surfaces using laser-based fabrication methods, optical devices for high-throughput laser texturing and recently also in-line monitoring systems. He is the author of more than 300 articles and 30 patents. Prof. Lasagni’s awards and honors include the Fritz-Grasenick-Prize (Austrian Society for Electron Microscopy), the Werner Köster Prize (DGM), the German High Tech Champion in Photovoltaic Award (BMBF), the Masing Gedächtnispreis (DGM), the Materials Science and Technology Prize (FEMS) and the Berthold Leibinger Award (2nd prize).

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.

Florian Kiefer is currently Head of Product Management Services for TRUMPF Laser- and Systemtechnik GmbH in Germany. He has 11 years of experience in short and ultra short pulsed lasers for industrial and research micro processing applications. Mr. Kiefer has worked with various lasers for developing applications and has held various positions in applied laser processing in the US and Germany. Mr. Kiefer holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Duale-Hochschule Baden-Wuerttemberg of
Germany.

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.

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.

 

Jiyeon Choi received her Ph. D. in optics from the College of Optics, CREOL/FPCE in the University of Central Florida, USA in 2009 and the joint Ph. D (Co-Tutelle) in laser physics from the University of Bordeaux, France in 2010. She is currently the head of the department of laser and electron beam technologies in Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) in Daejeon, Korea. Her research interests include ultrashort pulsed laser-matter interaction with novel optical materials for displays, photonics and biomedical applications. She is a member of SPIE, the optical society (OSA), the optical society of Korea (OSK), the Korean society of mechanical engineers (KSME), and the Korean society of laser processing (KSLP). She is an associate member of the National Academy of Engineering of Korea since 2022.