Board of Advisors

Dr. Piltch has worked in the area of laser physics, laser chemistry, and material science for his entire 40-year career. This included five years at TRG Control Data Corp., where he developed the first successful metal vapor lasers. At the Los Alamos National Laboratory, his activities included fundamental laser research, materials science and laser chemistry from 1972-2008. At the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching, Germany, Dr. Piltch worked on infrared-enabled photoionization spectroscopy. From 1983-1989, he coordinated the Los Alamos National Laboratory effort for the Air Force Strategic Options team which experimentally evaluated and modeled SDI directed energy weapons. From 1985 to 1992, Dr. Piltch concentrated on the use of novel energy sources for laser excitation. Dr. Piltch developed material science applications of lasers as process control diagnostics for welding and for the production of thin films. He developed diagnostics for superplastic forming/diffusion bonding of titanium as Principal Investigator on a DOE supported CRADA. He invented a femtosecond laser system for micron-class high resolution metrology. Most recently, Dr. Piltch co-invented a high-sensitivity fiber-optical (SOFIA) laser spectrometer for femtomolar fluorescence detection of Alzheimer’s and other prion related diseases. As a consultant, he regularly presents lectures in optics and laser physics at industrial and research facilities in the US and Canada.

He received his AB in physics from Columbia College in 1960, his MS and Ph.D. in physics from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, and his MBA from the Robert O. Anderson School of Management of the University of New Mexico. He is a Senior Visiting Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, a Henry Krumb Scholar and a New York State Regents Scholar at Columbia College and a National Science Foundation Fellow at Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn. He received two Distinguished Performance awards and was nominated for the honor of Senior Fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Dr. Piltch is a member of the Optical Society of America and the Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers. He has published more than thirty papers in the areas of laser physics, material science and optoelectronics. He holds thirteen United States patents.

Mr. Dave has a Ph.D. in Materials Engineering with a minor in Mathematics from MIT. He has more than 24 years of experience with advanced materials and manufacturing in industries ranging from aerospace to biomedical. Vivek Dave also is the founder of Northern New Hampshire Technical Associates as well as founder and CEO of Knowledge Machine International, Inc.