John Toeppen's Linkedin Analytics

Lasers, optics, imaging sciences, and design have been a natural career path for me. Adventures in advanced optics and material science continue to be a thrill along with creating designs reduced to purest form or taken to highest level. Holographic optics, mircolens arrays, zone plates, wavefront sensors, adaptive optics, electrophotography, relief imaging, molding, replication, laser cell capture, photopolymers, various resist, emulsions, coaters, liquid crystal, nanooptics, diffractive beam samplers, phase plates, and laser pulse compressor gratings were typical products and tools from my work at Lawrence Livermore National Lab. Building and using multi-million dollar clean rooms, lasers, billions of dollars in optics, and labs required well funded projects including NIF. Micro-optics work only needs a flow bench, an optical bench for testing, exposure, fabrication, and a dark room to put it in. I was a home holographer in the 1970s. Making my own mounts, selling holograms, starting HoloGraphics was not successful financially, but got me involved full time in laser welding, copier and projector design, laser system design, and a wide variety of special projects. Holography, interferometry, metrology, spectroscopy, wavefront sensors, adaptive optics, contact lens design and fabrication, optical replication, light shaping holographic diffusers, Liquid crystal lenses, glasses free 3D viewers, remote presence, and sensing were some of them. Today, I use photogrammetry as a powerful visualization tool use to make VR digital models of real subjects using photography. VR objects can easily convey complex concepts and advance sciences, arts, shopping, travel, and playful communication. Nearby nature photography in California and the West allows me great opportunities to shoot incredible scenes with unique gear in the field. Fifty foot wide prints for hospitals, 60 foot long LED backlit transparencies in a hotel, large stereoscopic digital files for Oculus or 3DHDTVs, 3D videos, object models from photos, and visualization hardware have been recent products. I was selected to be an Artist in Residence for Mesa Verde National Park and doing 3D scanning for the NPS. I have been digitizing ruins, ghost towns, and museums and encouraging others to do the same. I have done many custom projects, have built many labs, developed products and processes, and am available as a consultant.