The story began in the 1990s when a Russian scientist moved to the United States to expand his research in optics and photonics. Leonid Glebov arrived in 1995, set up his lab in the College of Optics and Photonics (CREOL) and began working with 麻豆原创鈥檚 technology transfer staff to take his inventions to the marketplace. After decades of hard work and determination, IPG Photonics, the world鈥檚 leading producer of high-power fiber lasers with annual revenue surpassing $1 billion, acquired OptiGrate, the company Glebov and his team founded.

Under the agreement inked this year, IPG Photonics will also fund additional research at CREOL.

OptiGrate is providing IPG Photonics with the components to enable new generations of laser systems for manufacturing at superior speeds and with the precision required to manufacture electric vehicles and smartphones as well as medical devices, which are pushing for lighter materials and production on a micro scale.

鈥淥ptiGrate offers an industry-leading technology that we believe will be beneficial in helping us penetrate new end markets,鈥� said James Hillier, vice president of Investor Relations for IPG.

OptiGrate will remain in Oviedo while IPG Photonics plans for expansion, Hillier added. And some of the founders of the company will remain as part of the new organization including Glebov, his son Alexei Glebov, president and CEO of OptiGrate since 2008, and Chief Technology Officer Vadim Smirnov.

The company鈥檚 primary product is made from holograms formed in the ultra-pure glass originally developed by Leonid Glebov and his group at 麻豆原创/CREOL, including his wife Larissa Glebova, a chemist, and Smirnov, Glebov鈥檚 graduate student at that time.

The glass is used in a type of grating or optical component that manufacturers can use to separate laser light by wavelength so the lasers can be finely tuned to precise frequencies for use in military and security applications such as explosive detection, materials processing for manufacturing and biopharmaceutical production.

Glebov said his training as a scientist both helped and hindered his approach to commercializing the technology he ultimately developed.

鈥淚 had no specific training in industry development,鈥� Glebov said.聽 鈥淎s a scientist my approach was to invest all profits in research and technology development. This approach enabled us to make decisions based on our vision of technology development and to create an efficient company without borrowing money.鈥�

He said he relied heavily on the 麻豆原创 commercialization team, especially M.J. Soileau, who was vice president for research and commercialization at the time; Dean Bahaa Saleh of the College of Optics and Photonics; Tom O鈥橬eal, associate vice president for innovation; Pallavoor Vaidyanathan, assistant vice president for research; and John Miner, assistant director in Technology Transfer; to walk him through the maze of legal issues surrounding incorporation. The company was introduced to 麻豆原创鈥檚 Business Incubation Program and Gordon Hogan, incubator director.

After OptiGrate was started in 1999, Smirnov and Glebova moved from 麻豆原创 to the company, converting scientific results to a technology enabling fabrication of components that could be delivered to customers. The company won a number of government contracts and produced unique holographic elements for government agencies, universities and industry.

Today, OptiGrate is a vertically integrated manufacturing and R&D facility whose team includes six Ph.D. and 12 master鈥檚 engineers. More than half of OptiGrate鈥檚 40 employees came from 麻豆原创.

鈥淲e are a widely international team from 10 different countries and we manufacture here in Florida a range of unique holographic components with unmatched characteristics,鈥� said Alexei Glebov, currently the president and general manager of the OptiGrate business unit of IPG Photonics. The company ships to more than 600 customers on five continents, numbers that will likely grow substantially with the IPG acquisition.

鈥溌槎乖� and the Florida High Tech Corridor have worked with OptiGrate since its inception through the 麻豆原创 Business Incubation Program and The Corridor鈥檚 Matching Grant Research Program,鈥� said Edward Schons, president of the Florida High Tech Corridor Council.

鈥淲e anticipate many new opportunities and growth for this home-grown company,鈥� Schons said.

Issa Batarseh, who has made significant technical contributions in the field of power electronics, and Guifang Li, a professor of optics and photonics who specializes in optical fiber communications, are 麻豆原创鈥檚 eighth and ninth members of the select academy.

Election to NAI Fellow status is a high professional distinction given to academic inventors who have demonstrated a prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development, and the welfare of society.

The class of 168 Fellows named today brings the total number of NAI Fellows to 582, representing more than 190 research universities and governmental and non-profit research institutions. The 2015 Fellows account for more than 5,300 issued U.S. patents, bringing the collective patents held by all NAI Fellows to more than 20,000. These academic luminaries have made a significant impact to the economy through innovative discoveries, creating startup companies, and enhancing the culture of academic invention.

Batarseh joined 麻豆原创 in 1991 and has distinguished himself by establishing the Florida Power Electronics Center, conducting significant scholarly research which has resulted in more than 100 published papers in refereed journals, and more than 200 refereed papers at international conferences. He is a Fellow of both the IEEE and the AAAS and, in 2004, received the Davis Productivity Award for Best Invention recognized by the State of Florida. He has graduated 42 Ph.D. students and more than 70 masters and undergraduate students.

Over the years, Batarseh has helped secure more than $12 million for his work in developing innovative power electronic systems to convert energy collected in solar panels into domestic electricity grids and similar topics in power electronics. He is also a founding partner of a start-up, Petra Solar, which is commercializing solar-electronics-conversion systems, and he has received 27 patents.

Li is the recipient of both the NSF Career award and the ONR Young Investigator Award, and is a fellow of IEEE, SPIE and the Optical Society of America. He is a deputy editor for Optics Express and an associate editor for Photonics Technology Letters.

His research interests include optical communication and networking, RF photonics and all-optical signal processing. He has collaborated widely with academic institutions and industry.

Li’s research, totaling $4.7 million, has focused on high-capacity optical fiber communication systems. He has been awarded 26 patents.

The NAI Fellows will be inducted April 15 as part of the fifth annual conference of the National Academy of Inventors at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria, Va. Fellows will be presented with a trophy, medal, and rosette pin in honor of their outstanding accomplishments.

Other 麻豆原创 members of the academy are Leonid Glebov, Shin-Tson Wu, Michael Bass, and Peter Delfyett, all from the College of Optics & Photonics; MJ Soileau, vice president for research and commercialization; Sudipta Seal, NanoScience Technology Center and the College of Engineering & Computer Science; Tson Wu and Marwan Simaan from the College of Engineering & Computer Science.

Awards totaling $39.9 million will help 149 university researchers at 84 academic institutions purchase state-of-the-art research equipment, which will benefit science education, medical training and the preparation of troops.

鈥淥ur strategy of focusing on research that stimulates the local and state economies has served us very well in competing for these federal awards,鈥� said MJ Soileau, vice president for research and commercialization at 麻豆原创. 鈥淥ur faculty have consistently shown that they can compete with the best and the equipment purchased with these awards will position them even better for future funding. This is particularly important since most contracts and grants are for specific work to be done and have little or no money for purchase of major capital equipment.鈥� 聽聽聽

The money coming to 麻豆原创 will purchase major equipment for projects in the Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers|College of Optics and Photonics (CREOL|COP) and the Institute for Simulation and Training in partnership with the College of Nursing.聽 聽聽

The CREOL|COP projects include:

Professor Greg Welch from the College of Nursing, IST and the College of Engineering and Computer聽Science received $178,000 from the Office of Naval Research to purchase specialized humanoid robots with computer-rendered or rubber 鈥渟kin鈥� faces that allow the robots to聽perform as surrogate humans. The work he is conducting, along with professors Arjun Nagendran in IST and Charles Hughes in CECS, will create an聽integrated platform for testing and developing these surrogate humans and associated computer graphics and animation to assist in training for the聽military, healthcare and teaching.聽

The Army Research Office, Office of Naval Research, and Air Force Office of Scientific Research fund the projects. They received 735 proposals requesting $278 million in support for research equipment.

麻豆原创, the University of Illinois and Rutgers University were the only universities to receive five awards.聽

The other Florida universities receiving awards this year are the University of Miami and Florida Atlantic University, with one award each.