Imperial College London Provost to Step Down: People in the News: 4/9/25

Photonics.com
Apr 2025LONDON, April 9, 2025 — Imperial College London’s provost Ian Walmsley will step down from his position in September to pursue new opportunities. Having held the role of provost since 2018, Walmsley previously was a member of the EPSRC Council, chaired the Beirat of the Max Born Institute in Berlin, served on the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics’ science advisory board, and was the international advisor for the Japanese Institute for Molecular Science. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 2012 for his contributions to quantum optics. He is also a fellow of the Institute of Physics, the American Physical Society, and Optica, of which he was president in 2018. Walmsley was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2024 for services to science and quantum technologies. The college will begin a global search for his replacement.

Ian Walmsley. Courtesy of the Imperial College London.

WENDELSTEIN, Germany — Laser optics manufacturer Sill Optics has appointed Guido Bonati as CEO, succeeding Christoph Sieber. Bonati has spent the past 30 years in various management positions in the optical industry, most recently as CTO and head of R&D at FISBA AG.

Guido Bonati. Courtesy of Sill Opics.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Natcast, a non-profit entity designated by the Department of Commerce to operate the National Semiconductor Technology Center established by the CHIPS and Science Act, has added Craig Child as director of the CHIPS for Americas EUV Accelerator, located at NY CREATES' Albany NanoTech Complex. Child joins Natcast from IBM Research and has more than two decades of experience in semiconductor R&D.

Craig Child. Courtesy of Natcast.

SACO, Maine — Optical components and systems company FISBA North America has appointed Daniel Gray as president of the company. Gray is the founder and former president of Gray Optics, which was acquired by FISBA in 2023. He has more than 20 years of experience in the development of precision optical systems for medical, biometric, consumer, and industrial markets.

Kathy Yang Chiu-chin. Courtesy of Foxconn.

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Foxconn, an electronics manufacturer, has named Kathy Yang Chiu-chin as its rotating CEO. Yang has more than three decades of experience in supply chain and logistics, concurrently serving as Foxconn’s global chief campus operation officer and chief logistics and trade compliance officer as well as chairperson and CEO of JUSDA.

WOBURN, Mass. — LED light sources developer Innovations in Optics, Inc. has added John Moran as chief marketing officer as well as Saahil Sood as full stack software engineer and Trevor Altman as senior opto-mechanical engineer. Moran brings over 25 years of experience in strategic marketing to companies in the photonics, biotech, financial, and technology spaces, and is the founder of a Boston-based digital marketing agency.

Hugo Saleh. Courtesy of Quantum Motion.

LONDON — Quantum Motion, a quantum computing company, has appointed Hugo Saleh as president and chief commercial officer. Saleh’s career has spanned across semiconductor, hardware, software, and cloud, most recently serving as the head of HPC and director of product at Google. Prior to this role, Hugo led the commercial operations and international expansion at Ayar Labs.

NEW YORK — Medical imaging biomarkers developer Quibim has formed a new board of directors, including six members. It includes Quibim CEO and co-founder Ángel Alberich-Bayarri, T2 MedTech founder Tom Tynes, Amadeus Capital partner Pierre Socha, Partech general partner Romain Lavault, Asabys Partners partner Guillem Masferrer, and Columbus Venture Partners partner and Buenavista representative José Mesa.

SEATTLE — Alpenglow Biosciences, a digital pathology and 3D imaging company, has appointed Blandine Merino and Mike Rice to its advisory board. Merino has over 20 years of experience in product development, business strategy, and operations across companies like Guardant Health, Freenome, and Agilent. Rice, former chairman and CEO of BioLife Solutions, brings more than 17 years of leadership in life sciences tools.

TEL AVIV, Israel — Laser-based computing developer LightSolver has added Colin Bell to its advisory board. Bell is a non-executive director of Serendipity Capital and previously served as CEO of HSBC Bank plc and HSBC Europe. Bell has extensive experience in the banking and financial industry, having also served the group chief compliance officer and group head of financial crime risk at HSBC Group and head of compliance and operational risk control at UBS. Additionally, Bell has held appointments with the U.K. Ministry of Defence and NATO.

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