EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CTO, LUMITRON TECHNOLOGIES
WHY: Co-founder of Irvine-based company developing pioneering X-ray system for the next generation of cancer treatments. The technology, called HyperView EBCS (Extremely Bright Compton Source), has successfully generated electron beams that for the first time enabled electron Flash radiotherapy (FLASH-RT). Professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Irvine; previously CTO at the National Ignition Facility Directorate at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he spent 17 years inventing the core technologies upon which Lumitron’s system is based.
BY THE NUMBERS: Founded in 2017, preparing to commence a funding round to raise $25 million to $40 million, which would give the company a valuation of around $300 million. Aims to make 100 machines annually at its facilities near UCI, with about 150,000 CT and MRI machines worldwide that will eventually need to be replaced.
FUTURE PLANS: The goal of starting sales within the next couple of years; before that, it wants to begin trials on brain cancer.
IN THEIR WORDS: “They’re still using a flashlight to find a disease when they could be using a laser. If we do it correctly, you will never need to remove a breast or a prostate again. We will find the disease before it’s a problem. It’s really changing human health—that’s a huge goal.”
