Management Team

Jonathan Klamkin is CEO and Director of Aeluma. He is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara (2015-present), where his group conducts pioneering research in integrated photonics and optoelectronics for communications and sensing applications. Dr. Klamkin was with BinOptics Corp., a laser diode manufacturer that was acquired by Macom in 2015, where he served as an optoelectronic device design and test engineer. He also held positions at MIT Lincoln Laboratory and Boston University. Jonathan is the recipient of numerous awards including the NASA Young Faculty Award, the DARPA Young Faculty Award, and the DARPA Director’s Fellowship. He has published more than 220 papers, holds several patents, and has given more than 100 invited presentations to industry, government and the academic community. Dr. Klamkin holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Cornell University and a Master of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering and a Ph.D. in Materials from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Thomas Laux is VP of Business Development at Aeluma. Mr. Laux was previously Head of Business Development for Continental’s Autonomous Mobility LiDAR Product Line. Prior to Continental, Mr. Laux served for six years as VP of Business Development at Advanced Scientific Concepts, Inc. (ASC), which was acquired by Continental in 2015. Joining ASC as its first business executive, Mr. Laux was able to win LiDAR business for space applications, including the OSRIS-REx asteroid Sample Return mission, as well as with multiple automotive OEM engagements. Prior to ASC, Mr. Laux participated in several startup companies through exit including MIPS Computer Systems, Alias|Wavefront, WISchip (Micronas), Silicon Optix, Extreme Networks and Pixim.