John Liptac, Senior Engineer

John comes to Cool Earth Solar armed with a broad background in physics, mechanical and electrical engineering, and semiconductor processing, as well as simulation and analysis. He brings 12 years of energy research experience to the table, most recently from Solyndra, Inc., where he worked on CIGS thin-film photovoltaic development, first as a process engineer and then as a process manager. Before Solyndra he developed logic technology at Intel Corporation's D1D facility as a senior process engineer. At Intel he contributed to the success of the high-k metal gate process and received multiple divisional awards. During his time at Solyndra and Intel, John was a key part of ramping technology from development into manufacturing.

Early in his technical career, John was a research assistant for the Plasma Science and Fusion Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). While at the Center, he designed and constructed a diagnostic x-ray camera system; developed software for image reconstruction, large data set reduction, and signal processing; and researched plasma interactions with titanium.

John received a BS in Interdisciplinary Engineering from the University of Washington, where he was named a Mary Gates Scholar and received the National Undergraduate Fellowship in Plasma Physics. He also holds a PhD in Applied Plasma Physics from MIT.