Our Team
Daniel J. Kane, PH.D.
CEO & Founder
Dr. Kane developed the FROG Scan product line and is the co-inventor of Frequency-Resolved Optical Gating (FROG), the most used technique for measuring ultrafast laser pulses. He has invented several techniques in spectroscopy, optical coherence tomography, and ultrafast laser pulse measurement and holds 11 patents and has one pending. He is the sole inventor of real-time measurement of ultrafast laser pulses using FROG and has patents on this technology (US# 7,130,052 and 8,068,230).
He holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a B.S. in Physics from Montana State University. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Los Alamos National Laboratories (Group CLS-4) and spent 17 years at Southwest Sciences. Dr. Kane is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America and the recipient of SPIE’s Harold E. Edgerton Award in 2011.
ANDREI B. VAKHTIN, PH.D.
Principal Research Scientist
Dr. Vakhtin joined Mesa Photonics in 2015. He has over 20 years of experience in gas-phase chemical kinetics, laser spectroscopy, laser-based sensors for trace gas monitoring, optical imaging methods for aerosol characterization, Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass-spectrometry, spectral interferometry and low-coherence imaging techniques for biomedical and material science applications.
He holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry (Institute of Chemical Kinetics and Combustion, Russia) and M.S. in Chemistry (Novosibirsk State University, Russia). He was a Postdoctoral Researcher at National Institute for Advanced Interdisciplinary Research (Tsukuba, Japan) and at JILA (Univ. of Colorado and NIST, Boulder, CO), and spent 12 years working at R&D companies Southwest Sciences and Vista Photonics.
KEITH WERNSING, PH.D.
Senior Research Scientist
Dr. Wernsing joined Mesa Photonics in 2020 as a Senior Research Scientist. His areas of expertise include ultrafast laser pulse propagation & measurement, pulse compression, and applications in multiphoton microscopy.
Keith holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Colorado State University, Fort Collins, and a B.A. in English from California State University, Long Beach. During his doctoral work in Dr. Randy Bartels’ group, Keith jointly developed ultrafast laser sources based on Yb:fiber technology and biomedical applications utilizing these sources. Applications included impulsive stimulated Raman pump-probe spectroscopy and super-resolved, multiphoton-excitation single-pixel imaging. Keith’s M.S. work in Dr. Jorge Rocca’s group focused on the development of cryogenically-cooled, diode-pumped Joule-class Yb: YAG CPA laser systems for generating extreme ultraviolet laser pulses. He is a co-inventor on a patent for this work (US # 9,209,598 B1).
ANTHONY (TONY) GOMEZ, PH.D.
Principal Research Scientist
Dr. Gomez joined Mesa Photonics in 2022 as a Principal Research Scientist. His current focus is the development and commercialization of instruments and methods for the measurement of gas phase species and aerosols using optical techniques.
Tony earned his Ph.D. at the University of California, Irvine, under Dr. Sergey Nizkorodov in 2007, where he built a cavity ringdown system to study the photo-oxidation products of organic aerosols. Subsequently, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher at Sandia National Laboratories where he developed fiber optic-based resonant cavities to measure species in microfluidic channels. While at Sandia, he also developed instrumentation for selective ionization and separation of inorganic aerosols for nuclear non-proliferation. Following his Postdoc, Tony worked at Southwest Sciences for 11 years developing scientific instruments.
ADMINISTRATIVE
- Suzanne Garney
ENGINEERING & MANUFACTURING
- Mark Medrud
- Yaniksa Mata-Solis
