Our Team

Firefly Photonics LLC is a startup company working out of the MERGE center established by the City of Iowa City and University of Iowa.  Our engineering team employs three full-time engineers. Our support team includes: a business manager (CPA, MBA), an accounting firm (LWBJ, West Des Moines); a law firm (Shuttleworth & Ingersoll, Cedar Rapids); and an IT firm (Remedium Systems, Iowa City). We work with two advisors with extensive background in technology startups and business development.

John P. Prineas

Co-Founder and President

John P. Prineas studied light-matter coupling in semiconductor heterostructures with Hyatt Gibbs at Optical Science Center and with Jaghdeep Shah at Lucent Technologies. After completing research at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart as an Alexander von Humbolt Fellow, he joined the faculty at the University of Iowa in 2001.

Currently, Prineas is a professor at the University of Iowa in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and has a secondary appointment in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Additionally, he was the founder and the first Director of the Molecular Beam Epitaxy Facility at the University of Iowa.

Education

B.A. in Physics — Carleton College, Northfield, Minn.
Ph.D. in Physics — University of Arizona

Memberships

Optical Science and Technology Center
American Physical Society
Optical Society of America Senior Member
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Senior Member
SPIE the International Society for Optics and Photonics

Michael Jones

Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Mike Jones was employed by Rockwell Collins for 21 years, beginning as an engineer and most recently holding the title of Vice President & General Manager of Communications & Navigation Products, where he set strategic direction, captured new business, and executed development and production of contracts. During this time at Rockwell, Jones was awarded the Rockwell Engineer of the Year award, which indicates his excellence as an engineer, in addition to his exceptional executive leadership experience.

His professional experience in optics began when he was employed with Reveo, a startup which developed stereoscopic 3D displays in White Plains, NY. He also worked with Optical Instrument Systems, a startup based in Michigan.

Education

B.S. in Physics, Washburn University, KS

M.S. in Optical Engineering, University of Rochester, NY

M.B.A., University of Iowa

Fatima Toor

Co-Founder and Vice President of Laser Technology Development

Fatima Toor developed spectrally high performing (4-wavelength; time and wavelength multiplexed; single mode) InGaAs/InAlAs/InP based quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) with Claire Gmachl at Princeton University. She was an academic postdoctoral researcher developing silicon-based devices and then a research analyst at Lux Research where she helped multinational corporations build their innovation pipeline by evaluating startups in the solar industry.

Currently, Toor is an assistant professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Iowa with secondary appointments in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, the Informatics Initiative Cluster, and the Optical Science and Technology Center. She is also an affiliate member of the University of Iowa Holden Cancer Center — Experimental Therapeutics program.

Education

B.S. with a double major in Physics and Engineering Science, Smith College, Northampton, Mass.,
Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Princeton University

Memberships

American Physical Society
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Optical Society of America
SPIE the international society for optics and photonics
American Society of Laser Medicine and Surgery

Edwin Koerperick

Co-Founder and Senior Engineer

Edwin Koerperick has more than 12 years of experience with development of infrared materials and devices. He was heavily involved with the initial SLEDs work beginning in 2006, and did his Ph.D. dissertation on MBE growth of SLEDs materials. During that time, he was also involved with device testing and fabrication, as well as development of custom characterization and assembly equipment and experiments.

Prior to joining Firefly Photonics, he spent seven and a half years in research and senior engineering positions at ASL Analytical, where he was responsible for development of optical and mechanical systems for IR spectroscopic instrumentation.

Education

B.S. in Applied Physics and B.S.E. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Iowa
Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Iowa