Michael Cumbo and Paul Meissner have been hired as executive vice presidents at Coherent Inc., a Santa Clara, Calif., provider of photonics-based products, primarily lasers, laser-based systems and accessories, for commercial and scientific research applications. Cumbo is the new executive vice president and general manager, optical technologies at Coherent. He was formerly vice president and general manager of JDS Uniphase's OCLI Telecom commercial laser division and was previously CTO of OCLI. Meissner, who was named executive vice president and general manager, laser systems, at Coherent, was formerly vice president and general manager for KLA-Tencor Corp. Before that, he was vice president and general manager of Applied Materials Inc.'s Thermal Systems and Modules Group. . . . Universal Display Corp., a Ewing, N.J.-based developer of organic light-emitting device (OLED) technologies for flat panel displays, lighting and other opto-electronic applications, has been awarded a $100,000 Small Business Innovation Research Phase I contract by the US Department of Energy to demonstrate a new approach, using its transparent and phosphorescent OLED technologies, to increase the power efficiency of white OLED lighting. Universal Display will develop and fabricate a white transparent PHOLED (phosphorescent organic light-emitting device) light source that is coupled to an external reflector. The company said this type of light source has potential uses in the commercial, residential and industrial sectors as well as architectural, automotive and wearable electronic applications.