Leo Baldwin, Principal Scientist

As principal scientist at Cool Earth Solar, Leo is diligently trying to save the planet. His areas of expertise include optics (imaging and non-imaging), optical design, optical modeling, machine vision, and more.

Before joining the Cool Earth team, Leo was senior research scientist at Electro Scientific Industries (ESI). While there, he developed a new wafer ID product (the "Bullet"), which resulted in five patent applications, and led the development of laser and optic systems for a new silicon micromachining machine. His ESI design work focused on imaging, coherent and non-coherent optical systems, diffractive, total internal reflection, spheric, aspheric and Fresnel designs as well as sequential and nonsequential raytracing and perturbation analysis (for starters). Prior to ESI, Leo was a consultant to Selectronics Robotics and Automation, designing illumination systems, imaging optical systems, and image processing algorithms for a "pick and place" robot system used for automatic medical kit packaging. Leo's career also includes stints as a vision systems engineer at Emhart Powers (now Emhart Glass), robotic systems engineer at Indal Technologies (now part of Curtiss Wright Controls), and product manager at ELCAN Optical Technologies. He has been awarded 11 patents, with 8 more pending. Leo attended the University of Waterloo, earning a B.Sc. with honors in applied physics.