Management Team

MOHAMMED ISLAM, Sc.D., Founder & Chief Technology Officer, has published over 130 papers in refereed journals and holds over 120 patents or patents pending. In addition, he has authored three books and has written several book chapters. He has also been an invited speaker at over 70 conferences and symposia, and he has served on numerous conference technical committees, advisory committees and Board of Directors.

His current research interests include mid- and near-infrared laser sources and their applications in defense and healthcare. On the defense side, applications include infrared countermeasures, explosives detection, and active remote sensing. On the healthcare side, his research relates to using fiber lasers in cardiology, endocrinology, dentistry, and cancer detection.

Dr. Islam has been the founder and Chief Technology Officer for several companies, including Xtera Communications, Celeste Optics, AccuPhotonics, Omni MedSci, and Cheetah Omni. He is also a Registered Patent Agent with the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Dr. Islam received a B.S. degree in 1981, a M.S. degree in 1983, and the Sc.D. degree in 1985, all in electrical engineering, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge. From 1985-1992 he was a member of the Technical Staff in the Advanced Photonics Department at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Holmdel, N.J. He joined the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1992, where he is currently a Full Tenured Professor. He also has a joint Full Professor appointment in the Biomedical Engineering Department and the University of Michigan Medical School, Department of Internal Medicine.

Prof. Islam was a Fannie and John Hertz Fellow from 1981-1985, and in 1992 he was awarded the OSA Adolf Lomb Medal for pioneering contributions to nonlinear optical phenomena and all-optical switching in optical fibers. He also received the U-M research excellence award in 1997 and became a Fellow of the Optical Society of America in 1998. In 2002 he received the Texas eComm Ten Award for being one of the 10 most influential people in Texas's digital economy. He became a fellow of the IEEE in 2004. He is also the first recipient of the prestigious 2007 Distinguished University Innovator Award for developing and commercializing break-through technology as well as bringing lessons learned back into the classroom through teaching of entrepreneurship and intellectual property protection.

MIKE FREEMAN, Ph.D., Director of Research, has led the design effort for OSI's prototype broadband lasers. He has extensive design and hands on experience with fiber optic systems, fiber and semiconductor lasers, and Raman oscillators and amplifiers. He is also a licensed professional engineer with a broad electronics design and computer programming background.

CYNTHIA PLETZ, Office Manager, leads team efforts to complete projects within their planned scope, schedule and resources, including the preparation, review and analysis of budgets and finances.