Management

Scott Davis, CEO and Founder

Dr. Davis is a physics-trained entrepreneur. He co-founded Vescent Photonics to develop photonic-based non-mechanical laser beamsteerers. This technology was sold off to Analog Devices for the automotive market. He has extensive business and technical experience including growing a technology manufacturing line, IP development, liquid crystal (LC) device physics, molecular and laser spectroscopy, precision metrology, and laser stabilization. While working at NIST in Gaithersburg, MD and JILA in Colorado he acquired skills in laser stabilization, optical frequency metrology, and molecular spectroscopy. He has over 50 papers, two book chapters, and more than 25 patents pending or issued. Prior to starting Vescent Photonics, Dr. Davis worked in industry as an optical engineer, served as an NRC postdoc in the laboratories of David Plusquellic at NIST, and obtained his Ph.D. from JILA under the tutelage of Prof. David Nesbitt.

Ruth McCurry, Vice President of Finance & Administration

Ms. McCurry has 30 years of experience in High-Tech Manufacturing and Government Contracting Industries. Her experience includes working with both Small Businesses on the SBIR/STTR programs as well as Prime Government Contractors.

She is a successful and responsible Accounting Professional with a proven track record of:

Management of small business accounting and financial operations
Streamlining business processes to enable efficient flow of funds to support operations
Implementing financial ERP systems to support the achievement of corporate goals and objectives

Positioning small businesses for successful mergers and acquisitions

Preparation of accurate financial statements and management of external audits

Ms. McCurry holds a B.S. Accounting from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

Scott Rommel, Vice President of Operations and Founder

Mr. Rommel has over ten years of experience in LC-optic design and LC-device manufacturing, and over fifteen years of experience in general optical assembly. He has designed and built ellipsometers for wavelength metrology and quality control in the manufacture of precision polarization optics, and he was the project lead for a liquid-crystal polarimeter and microelectronic controller. As a co-founder of Vescent Mr. Rommel has developed micro-photonic and LC-waveguide test and assembly protocols. Mr. Rommel joined ADI in 2016 to develop commercial applications for Liquid Crystal Waveguide technology and returned to Vescent in 2019.

Michael B. Radunsky, Ph.D., Vice President of Sales & Marketing

Dr. Radunsky has over 15 years of experience in Marketing, Sales, and Product Management of lasers and photonics tools. His career began at Continuum Electro-optics where he helped develop one of the first market-ready pulsed OPO systems and other tunable and fixed-wavelength lasers. He has also managed ultrafast systems as well as external cavity diode and quantum cascade lasers. Dr. Radunsky also has extensive experience in international channel management and direct sales, including OEM account management. Dr. Radunsky obtained his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley and completed a postdoc at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Kurt Vogel, Ph.D., Vice President of Technology

Dr. Vogel has 20 years of experience developing photonics-based products. He has expertise in optical-based precision measurements, nonlinear optics, optical spectroscopy, laser frequency stabilization, and optical frequency combs. Currently, he leads technology and product development at Vescent Photonics, a company specializing in high-performance laser systems and instruments for the atomic, molecular, and optical physics research markets. Prior to joining Vescent, Dr. Vogel led an engineering team at MBio Diagnostics developing a fluorescence-based microarray reader for medical diagnostics. In 2000, he co-founded Precision Photonics, where he led technology development and developed products for laser-based metrology. As an NRC post-doctoral researcher at NIST Boulder, he performed some of the first optical frequency measurements with stabilized frequency combs. His graduate thesis studies under Nobel Laureate Dr. John Hall involved laser cooling and trapping experiments with neutral strontium.