Milan Brandt is a professor in Advanced Manufacturing in the School of Engineering, Technical Director Advanced Manufacturing Precinct and Director RMIT Centre for Additive Manufacturing, RMIT University, Melbourne Australia. Professor Brandt has been involved with lasers and manufacturing technologies professionally for some 36 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 200 publications, 5 book chapters and a book on laser additive manufacturing.  He has also commercialised the results of his research through the companies he has helped establish.  

Professor Brandt is a Fellow and currently an executive member of LIA.  In 2018 he was the president of LIA.  He has had a 33 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 is also the Senior Editor of JLA in additive manufacture.  Milan Brandt was the 2020 Arthur L. Schawlow Award winner.

Thierry Marchione is presently Senior Engineering Specialist at Caterpillar’s Research and Advanced Engineering organization. With more than 35 years of experience in the laser material processing, he has been a pioneer, an advocate, an interface with the industry and an everlasting enthusiast for laser technology. 

His early involvement in laser cladding and additive manufacturing allow him to successfully develop, transfer and implement this specialty for diverse companies sizes and industries types.

Thierry holds a B.S. in Optics and a M.S in Photonic Laser materials processing from University of Strasbourg, France. He has authored over 15 technical papers, and currently holds 25 patents.

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.-Ing. Michael Schmidt holds the chair of the Institute of Photonic Technologies since its founding in 2009 at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU). Additionally he leads the Bayerisches Laserzentrum GmbH (blz GmbH) as managing director since January 2005. He works for more than 20 years in the field of photonics with an emphasis on its application in industry and medicine from the view point of engineering.

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).

Rainer Kling currently works as business unit manager for laser micro machining at Alphanov, a technology center for lasers, based in Bordeaux, France. His expertise in centered around high precision materials processing with ultrashort pulsed lasers, in particular drilling, engraving, selective ablation and surface functionalization as well as intra-volume modification of transparent materials. From 2002 -2011 he has been working at Laser Center in Hannover (LZH) where he headed the Department of Production and Systems Technology. He holds a PhD degree in Physics from the Leibniz University of Hannover. He has published around 200 papers and conference presentations. In 2020 he was awarded the SPIE fellowship for his continued scientific contributions to the laser community.

Dr Jack Gabzdyl is currently Business Development Manager at TRUMPF laser division a position held since 2021. Previously Jack was VP of Marketing & Business Development at SPI Lasers where he has worked in numerous roles since joining the company in 2007 developing fiber lasers and their applications. Jack has over 35 years of industrial laser materials processing experience and widely published with over 60 technical conference papers and articles/publications. Jack has a degree in Metallurgy and Materials Science and a PhD in laser material processing from Imperial College London in 1989, focused on laser cutting. Through his career Jack has been actively involved in the wider promotion of laser technology having been chair of the UK’s ‘Make it With Laser’ programme, UK delegate to the IIW and a committee member of AILU and a long term supporter of ICALEO. His contribution has more recently been recognised by election as a Fellow of the Laser Institute of America (LIA).

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.

Jared Speltz is the Team Lead for the Laser Manufacturing Technology Development team at the University of Dayton Research Institute (UDRI). He specializes in laser manufacturing applications utilizing ultrafast laser processes and technology. His work includes developing novel applications utilizing ultrashort pulsed lasers (USPL) and has built multiple high power femtosecond systems including the Composite Laser Ablation for Composite Preparation (CLASP) system. Prior to joining UDRI in 2017, Mr. Speltz worked at a small business for 6 years in laser manufacturing, not only researching and developing of novel laser processes, but also working to optimize those developments to be used on a production scale.

Alexander Olowinsky, born in Tübingen, Germany, in 1968, studied mechanical engineering at RWTH Aachen University from 1989 to 1996. He obtained his doctorate in 2002 while working as a research assistant at the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT. Subsequently, Dr. Olowinsky worked there as group leader "Microjoining" in the competence field "Ablation and Joining". In 2022 he took over as head of the department" Joining and Cutting". His research interests lie in the areas of laser-based joining and cutting processes for applications in electronics, energy technology, battery and hydrogen technology, as well as lightweight construction and packaging technology. 

Gwenn Pallier is an Optical Engineer. She graduated from the Institut d'Optique in Paris in 2010. She has worked in the defense industry for Qioptiq in Singapore as a test engineer, for the space industry within the Thales group as an Optical Engineer and Project manager, and in the LIDAR industry for Lumibird as a Product Line Manager. Gwenn is now Product Line Manager at Cailabs in charge of the development of beam-shaping products for laser material processing applications, which includes both micro and macro-processing.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christoph Leyens studied and graduated in materials science and engineering, earned his Ph.D. in the field of coatings for and engineering of titanium alloys, and finally habilitated on materials for aerospace – RWTH Aachen being his alma mater. He has worked at DLR – German Aerospace Center as research scientist, group leader and finally acting director of the Institute of Materials Research before he accepted a full professorship in Metallurgy and Materials Technology at BTU Cottbus in 2004. Here he was also board member of the Light Weight Development Center Panta Rhei and served as the university’s Vice President for Research, Development and Innovation for more than two years. In 2009 he accepted the full professorship for Materials Technology at TU Dresden, and since 2010 he serves as the director of the Institute of Materials Science at TU Dresden. After several management positions at the Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS, Dresden, he was appointed its director in 2016. Since 2022 he is a member of the Executive Board of acatech - National Academy of Science and Engineering.

Prof. Leyens has covered a wide range of research topics including science and technology of high temperature and lightweight materials, surface engineering and coatings development, (laser-based) thermal surface technology, laser processing and additive manufacturing. He has published more than 300 scientific papers, 16 books and book chapters and holds 11 patents.

Dr. Gu is the founder and president of BOS Photonics dedicated to develop the next generation of photonics technology. He is currently LIA secretary and a fellow of LIA, OSA, SPIE, and COS.

Andreas Michalowski studied physics at the Technical University of Dortmund, graduating with a diploma degree. He then worked as a research assistant at the IFSW, focusing on materials processing with ultrashort laser pulses, which was also the thematic focus of his doctorate. In 2011 he started at Bosch Research as a scientist and was responsible for process fundamentals and simulation for machining with ultrashort pulses. Since 2018 he was the senior expert responsible for virtual process development and later additionally for hybrid modeling (physics + machine learning) for laser material processing.

Since August 2022 Andreas Michalowski is a professor at the IFSW at the University of Stuttgart, focusing on laser technology in manufacturing. This professorship was newly established within the framework of the InnovationCampus Future Mobility.