CEO and President, Dr. Edward Knobbe

Dr. Edward Knobbe received the Ph.D. degree (Engineering) from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1990. Dr Knobbe has broad academic and industrial expertise in sensor research, development, and commercialization activities acquired over his career spanning a period of nearly 30 years. Upon completion of the doctorate, Dr. Knobbe joined the faculty at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma as a tenure-track Assistant Professor with joint appointments in the Department of Chemistry and the University Center for Laser Research. During his period of service on the faculty at Oklahoma State University (1990-2001), Dr. Knobbe was promoted through the ranks of Associate Professor and Professor. Served as founding Director of the College of Arts and Sciences Center for Sensors and Sensor Technologies (1996) and Associate Dean for Multidisciplinary Research while working in the Office of the Vice President or Research (1997-2001).

In 2004 Dr. Knobbe joined Nomadics as Corporate Vice-President, Research, where his duties included PI responsibilities for a variety of federally-funded sensor systems and technology development programs. Sponsors during this time (2004-2009) included ONR, DHS (HSARPA and TSL), US Army, and DARPA. His experience during this period spanned Nomadics’ acquisition by ICx Technologies (with concomitant formation of the ICx Nomadics subsidiary unit) and ICx Technologies initial public offering in 2006. He subsequently organized ICx Nomadics’ Advanced Concepts Group and managed that unit until initiating his transition from ICx Nomadics to Spectrum Photonics in 2009.

In June 2008 Dr. Knobbe became the principle founder of Spectrum Photonics, Inc. In the past 12 years Spectrum Photonics has received numerous federally-funded R&D contracts, including 2 DARPA seedlings, 12 Phase I SBIRs (Army, CBD, NSF, and Navy), 7 Phase II SBIRs, and two Phase III SBIR. Spectrum now has 18 employees, with plans to expand further over the next 12 months. Dr. Knobbe has been the Principal Investigator or Project Director for numerous sensor-oriented technology development projects including efforts focused on standoff detection, recognition, and tracking technologies.

Selected peer-reviewed Publications

1. Paul G. Lucey, Jason Akagi, Adam L. Bingham, John L. Hinrichs, and Edward T. Knobbe, “A compact Fourier transform imaging spectrometer employing a variable gap Fabry-Perot Interferometer”, Proc. SPIE. 9101, Next-Generation Spectroscopic Technologies VII. (2014).

2. A. L. Bingham, P.G. Lucey, J.T. Akagi, et al., “LWIR hyperspectral micro-imager for detection of trace explosive particles”, Proceedings of SPIE Vol. 9101, 91010Z (2014).

3. A. L. Bingham, P. G. Lucey, and E.T. Knobbe, “Compact LWIR sensors using spatial interferometric technology”, Proc. SPIE. 10210, Next-Generation Spectroscopic Technologies X. (2017).