OptiGrate has the excellent combination of skills and experiences of key management and technical personnel in bringing innovative technology to the market. The leadership team consists of:
Dr. Alexei Glebov
Dr. Alexei Glebov has a wealth of industrial experience in managing advanced product development and manufacturing in optoelectronic industry, with a strong emphasis on new product introduction (NPI). Dr. Glebov started his industrial career at Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies in 1998 and worked for over a decade in various technical and management positions on cutting-edge technology development at Finisar Corp, Fujitsu Ltd, and Lucent Technologies. He has 35 US patents issued and pending, more than 50 peer-reviewed journal publications and book chapters with 600+ citation index, is a frequent invited lecturer, editor of several proceedings bands, conference chair, session chair, executive organizing and program committee member at major SPIE, IEEE and EOS meetings and trade shows. Dr. Alexei Glebov joined OptiGrate in 2008 as CEO and President and leads the company in the successful growth to become the leader in the field of holographic optical elements for optoelectronic applications.
Education: Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Georg-August University of Goettingen, Germany, M.S. in Applied Physics from University of St. Petersburg, Russia
Mr. Vadim Smirnov
Mr. Smirnov pioneered the early development of volume Bragg grating technology in PTR glass and has 15-year experience in holography and VBGs. He is the principal investigator of three research projects on large aperture volume Bragg gratings for spectroscopy, high energy femtosecond lasers, and spectral beam combining. Over the last five years, he has been the leading force behind the development of new VBG products that today comprise a majority of OptiGrate’s product lines. He has also been a key contributor in VBG technologies on four DOD funded programs: ADHELS, STAB, APPLE, and SHEDS. He is the co-author of six US patents and 75 papers and presentations on PTR hologram technology and its applications.
Education: Master of Science in Physics, St-Petersburg Technical University of Fine Mechanics & Optics, Russia; Master of Science in Optics, School of Optics/CREOL, University of Central Florida
Prof. Dr. Leon Glebov
Prof. Glebov founded OptiGrate in 1999. As President and CTO he was instrumental in establishing the company and he continues to direct OptiGrate’s research and development activities in his current role as Vice President of R&D. The early work of Dr. Glebov and his team in 1970’s has paved a way to modern VBG technology in PTR glass and his further research efforts in 1990’s enabled to bring the technology to a commercial level that led to the founding of OptiGrate. Dr. Glebov is also a Research Professor at CREOL, at the University of Central Florida, where he leads the Photoinduced Processing research group since 1995. Before coming to the US, Prof. Glebov has led the world-renown Vavilov State Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia where over the course of many years he has held various high-level positions from Head of the Optical Glass Division to Director of the Institute. Dr. Glebov has published one book, more than 304 technical articles in scientific journals and holds more than 20 patents.
Education: M.S. in Physics and Engineering, Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, Leningrad, Russia (1971), Ph.D. in Physics (major in Optics), State Optical Institute, Leningrad, Russia (1976), Doctor of Science in Physics (major in Optics), State Optical Institute, Leningrad, Russia (1987).
Dr. Oleg Smolski
Dr. Oleg Smolski started his scientific career at the Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute in 1982, where he worked as a Researcher for sixteen years in the laboratory headed by Prof. Zh. Alferov, 2000 Nobel Prize Winner in Physics. His knowledge and experience in the field of semiconductor laser technology were extended by performing research at the University of Connecticut, and then managing the Packaging, Test and Reliability Group at Infinite Photonics, Inc. In 2003 Dr. Smolski joined CREOL, at the University of Central Florida, where he was involved in the execution of different research programs and also in the development of the CREOL nanophotonics facility. Beginning 2007 Dr. Smolski worked as an Associate Research Professor at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. His research activity covers the broad area of the technologies including semiconductor structure epitaxial growth, laser diode processing&packaging, developing advanced light-emitting devices with the in-plane integrated diffraction optical elements, etc. Dr. Oleg Smolski is a co-author of over 50 scientific papers published in refereed journals and conference proceedings.
Education: Mh.D. in Physics and Mathematics from Ioffe Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia; Master of Science in Optoelectronics from St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University, St Petersburg, Russia.
Dr. Igor Ciapurin
Dr. Igor Ciapurin is with OptiGrate Corp since 2005. He received his Ph.D. degree in Physics from the State University of Moldova, where he joined the R&D Department in 1991 and has held different research and management positions. Since 2001, Igor has been with CREOL/UCF in Orlando, Florida, where his research has mainly aimed to design and develop volume Bragg gratings in PTR glass for spectral beam combining of high-power lasers. He has 70+ publications in refereed journals and conference proceedings, and 15+ years of experience in business management.
Education: h.D. in Physics of Semiconductors and Dielectrics from the State University of Moldova, M.S. in Optoelectronics from Kishinev State University, Moldova
Dr. Aleksandr Ryasnyanskiy
The research activity of Dr. Ryasnyanskiy covers optical and nonlinear optical properties of nanomaterials, development of pulsed and CW laser sources including fiber lasers, parametric oscillators, and amplifiers, etc. His work experience includes several research positions in France: Institut des nanosciences de Paris (2004-2005), Institut d’Optique, Paleseau (2007-2009); and in the United States: Institute for Lasers, Photonics and BioPhotonics, Buffalo, NY (2006-2007); Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA (2009-2011) where he gained experience in optics and laser physics. He has published more than 70 technical articles in scientific journals and more than 40 talks have been presented at international conferences and workshops.
Education: M.S. in Physics and Mathematics, Samarkand State University, Samarkand, Uzbekistan (1999), Ph.D. in Physics (major in Laser Physics), Institute of Electronics, Tashkent, Uzbekistan (2002)
