Greg Kress, Ph.D.
FOUNDER & CEO
Greg Kress is a technology entrepreneur, investor, and multidisciplinary hardware engineer. Greg has helped to launch more than 20 first-of-a-kind hardware products as CEO at Radicand, a startup accelerator in Silicon Valley. In 2017, Radicand created a spinoff company: Pearl Coffee, a hardware-enabled office coffee service that was funded by Y Combinator. In 2018, he joined Pioneer Fund where he is now a Senior Venture Partner. Greg received his master’s and doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University where he is currently an Adjunct Lecturer. He is a summa cum laude graduate of the Engineering Physics program at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
David G. Stork, Ph.D.
CHIEF SCIENTIST
David Stork is an esteemed expert in the field of pattern recognition, image processing and computer vision. He was previously Chief Scientist of Ricoh Innovations (a subsidiary of the $6B international Ricoh Company) where he led the digital optics research group. Prior to Ricoh, he was appointed Fellow at Rambus Inc. to lead their computational sensing and imaging initiatives. He is currently teaching (part-time) in the departments of Computer Science, Statistics, and Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. He has published over 280 technical papers, authored 9 books/proceedings volumes, and holds 64 issued US patents. Dr. Stork holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Physics from the University of Maryland and a B.S. in Physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also a senior member of the IEEE.
John Kenison, Ph.D.
SENIOR OPTICAL ENGINEER
John Kenison is a physicist with more than 7 years of experience in the development of optical systems for imaging and sensing applications. Prior to joining Imagia, John developed systems for optical detection of airborne contaminants at Picarro and semiconductor metrology tools at KLA. John earned his doctorate at UC Irvine where he worked on the enhancement of nonlinear microscopy signals through plasmonic effects. In 2019 he joined the Cancer Early Detection Advanced Research Center (CEDAR) at Oregon Health and Sciences University to work on novel single molecule imaging systems to extend the utility of super-resolution imaging in cancer research.
Mahshid Asri, Ph.D.
COMPUTATIONAL PHYSICIST
Mahshid Asri conducted her doctoral and postdoctoral research in Electrical Engineering at Northeastern University, where she developed deep learning algorithms to interpret 3D radar data for imaging and anomaly detection for security applications. She received the Outstanding Leadership Award for her work at the Department of Homeland Security SENTRY Center of Excellence. Prior to joining Imagia, Mahshid worked as a software engineer at Metalenz where she improved the metasurface design and simulation package from first principles. She is skilled in electromagnetic computational simulations, numerical techniques, and algorithm development for machine learning and computer vision.
Lawson Fuller, Ph.D.
COMPUTATIONAL PHYSICIST
Lawson Fuller attained his Ph.D. at UCSD in Physics with a specialization in computational neuroscience, where he developed physics-guided solutions to problems in Artificial Intelligence. He was named the Bhadra Fellow of the Physics Department in 2023. Prior to joining Imagia, Lawson interned as a Research Assistant at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab with the Particle Data Group, where he developed software for data analysis of particle physics experiments for the ATLAS project and others. His work at LBNL was featured in The Review of Particle Physics (2018). He received his Bachelors in Physics and Applied Mathematics from the University of Arizona.
Michael Chiasson
LEAD SYSTEMS ENGINEER
Michael Chiasson is a multifaceted engineer who has held senior-level roles in electrical, firmware and software engineering, developing smart products in both B2C and B2B contexts. Michael specializes in complex system design specifically in the low-power and analog regimes. Prior to joining Imagia, Michael was a Senior Software Engineer at PicassoMD, a medical logistics platform where he did full-stack development for web applications. Previously, he held embedded systems development roles at Sphero and Spark Grills. Notably, Michael led an interdisciplinary team to create the world’s first smartwatch powered entirely by body heat at Radicand.
Arindom Datta, Ph.D.
PRINCIPAL NANOFABRICATION ENGINEER
Arindom Datta is a Materials Scientist with more than 15 years of experience in the semiconductor industry and deep expertise in micro/nanofabrication. Prior to joining Imagia, Arindom held Sr. Process Engineer roles at Adecco, Digilens, Lumentum, Spin Memory, Veeco Instruments and Innovative Micro Technology. He earned his Ph.D. in Materials Science from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and did his post-doctoral research in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Arindom has 5 years of research experience with 40 academic publications and holds four U.S. patents, two of which have been licensed by Intel.
Heydar Honarvar Nazari, Ph.D.
STAFF NANOFABRICATION ENGINEER
Heydar Honarvar Nazari is a Materials Scientist with more than 10 years of experience in semiconductor materials and deep expertise in micro/nanofabrication. Prior to joining Imagia, Heydar earned his doctorate at the Center for Autonomous Solar Power (CASP) at SUNY Binghamton with a focus in novel materials for photovoltaics and transistors. He worked directly with Professor Stanley M. Whittingham, the Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry in 2019, to fabricate a new generation of Li-ion batteries. As a partner and Technical Manager at Kish Solar, Heydar directly contributed to bringing 25 MW in solar capacity online.
Chris Alliegro, Ph.D.
MEMBER, BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Chris is an experienced executive, investor and engineer, and currently Managing Partner at MetaVC Partners. He served as Managing Director of the Invention Science Fund, following eight years as Managing Director of the Invention Development Fund with a focus in metamaterials startups. He held multiple positions at Microsoft, where he managed business applications and platform strategies, including director of data center operations and engineering, and director of engineering for MSN. Chris was also a member of technical staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories. He earned a PhD in Physics from Yale University.
Larry Froeber
MEMBER, BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Larry Froeber is the Chief Financial Officer at Intellectual Ventures (IV), where he has held multiple finance leadership roles since 2008. He is responsible for managing critical corporate functions including finance, tax, treasury, IT, and investor relations. Prior to joining IV, Larry served as the Chief Financial Officer at one of Washington State’s largest privately held mortgage banks. He was also VP and head of finance and administration for Ignition Partners, a Seattle-area VC firm that invests in early-stage software and IT companies with approximately $1B AUM. Larry earned a business degree from the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business.
Prof. Mark Brongersma
MEMBER, BOARD OF ADVISORS
Mark Brongersma is a Professor in the Departments of Materials Science and Engineering and Applied Physics (by courtesy) at Stanford University. His research focuses on the development of new materials and structures that find use in nanoscale electronic and photonic devices. He coined the term “plasmonics” during his postdoctoral research at the California Institute of Technology. He has authored\co-authored over 175 publications, including papers in Science and Nature. Mark received the NSF Career Award, the International Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize in the Physical Sciences (Physics), and is a Fellow of The Optical Society, SPIE, and the American Physical Society.
Homer Antoniadis, Ph.D.
MEMBER, BOARD OF ADVISORS
Homer brings more than 25 years of experience in developing hardware products for consumer electronics, displays, lighting and photovoltaics. He has held leadership positions at Nanosys, ISF Incubator, Kateeva, DuPont, Innovalight, Osram, HP, and Xerox, and has served as advisor, board member, and expert witness to international firms. Homer is an accomplished display technology/product development leader and engineer who specializes in advancing display technology from R&D to mass manufacturing. He holds 32 US patents and has published more than 70 technical papers. He holds a MS and PhD in Solid State Physics from Syracuse University.