Fraunhofer CAP Appoints Head, Scientific Director: People in the News: 1/15/25

The board of biotechnology company Lumencor has promoted Claudia Jaffe to president and CEO, effective immediately. Jaffe, previously chief commercial officer, founded the company with Steven Jaffe. Steven Jaffe, who preceded Claudia as president and CEO, now serves as chief operating officer, maintaining his focus on engineering and operations.

BEDFORD, Mass. — SpectraWAVE, Inc., a medical imaging company, has appointed Brad Davis as CCO and Bill Kelly as CFO. Davis brings over 24 years of experience in cardiovascular medical devices to the role, having worked for both large and small companies including Guidant, Boston Scientific, and CSI. Kelly joins SpectraWAVE from Vicarious Surgical, where he served as CFO, with prior experience as CFO of Exosome Diagnostics.

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Quintessent Inc., a developer of heterogeneous silicon photonics and quantum dot laser technology, has added Bob Nunn as COO in an effort to help the company meet the growing demand in high bandwidth optical interconnects for AI applications. Nunn most recently served as CEO of Everactive, a start-up company building batteryless Internet of Things solutions, and previously as managing director at Intel Capital.

Former Fraunhofer CAP head and scientific director Martin Dawson (left) and Loyd McKnight. Courtesy of the University Strathclyde.

GLASGOW, Scotland — The Fraunhofer Centre for Applied Photonics (Fraunhofer CAP) has appointed Loyd McKnight as head and scientific director of the center. McKnight takes up the role after working at Fraunhofer CAP for 13 years, most recently as head of the center’s quantum technologies business unit. McKnight will transfer into the Institute of Photonics at the University Strathclyde as professor of practice. McKnight's expertise includes frequency-stabilized lasers, photon sources, integrated optics, and quantum systems for sensing and information processing. He succeeds Martin Dawson, who has served as the center's head and scientific director since its founding in 2012.

BROOKFIELD, Conn. — Photronics, Inc., a photomask technologies and solutions company, has added George Macricostas as executive chairman. Macricostas has over 30 years of technical and management experience in business operations and information technology and has been a member of the Photronics board of directors since 2002, serving on the nomination and cybersecurity committees, and most recently as chairman of the compensation committee. He was also the chairman, CEO, and a founder of RagingWire Data Centers, Inc., a provider of mission critical data center colocation facilities.

Giuseppe Buscemi. Courtesy of VueReal.

WATERLOO, Ontario — VueReal, a micro-LED technology company, has appointed Giuseppe Buscemi as vice president of semiconductor engineering. Buscemi previously served as director of LED technologies at Micledi and CTO of both PRP Optoelectronics and Northern Lights Electronics LTD.

MAPLE GROVE, Minn. — Provider of static control packaging for optics Conductive Containers, Inc. (CCI) has appointed Séamus Lafferty as CEO and member of its board of directors, succeeding Brad Ahlm who served in the role since 1993. Before joining CCI, Lafferty spent 24 years as a growth-focused executive within Barry-Wehmiller Companies in Minneapolis and a predecessor company, Stanford Products.

BILLERICA, Mass. — Nirrin Technologies, a developer of analytical tools for transform bioprocess analysis, has founded a scientific advisory board. The board will provide technical and strategic guidance for ongoing research and development programs and shape plans for current and future innovations within the company. Inaugural members include Aaron B. Crowley, CSO of ReciBioPharm (formerly Arranta Bio); Bryan Hassell, founder and CTO at Nirrin; Tom Ransohoff, principal at RTI Consulting and an operating partner with Keensight Capital; and Daniel D. Smith, CSO and mergers and acquisitions advisor at That’s Nice.

Irina Novikova (left) and Siddharth Ramachandran. Courtesy of Optica.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Optica Publishing Group has added Irina Novikova as editor-in-chief of the Journal of the Optical Society of America B and Siddharth Ramachandran as editor-in-chief of Optics Express. Novikova is a professor of physics at the College of William & Mary and is currently a member of Optica’s publications council, has served on Optica’s membership engagement and development council, and is an Optica fellow. Ramachandran is a distinguished professor of engineering at Boston University; has served as a Deputy editor and associate editor for Optica, as well as in editorial positions with Optics Letters, Photonix, and IEEE Journal Quantum Electronics; and is a fellow of Optica, AAAS, APS, IEEE, and SPIE.