Dan Christensen, Ph.D.

Dan Christensen, Ph.D. has over 10 years of professional experience in the field of optics. From 2005-2008, they worked as a Research Assistant at Brigham Young University's Department of Physics and Astronomy, where they developed, tested, and characterized a thermal atomic beam source towards the construction of a new atomic time standard, as well as assisted in the optical alignment of the system and developed a computer simulation for a proposed experiment testing a possible non-zero rest mass of photons. From 2012-2013, they worked as an Outside Technical Writer for Navitar Inc.

From 2013-2019, they worked at TOPTICA Photonics AG, first as a Product Manager, then as a Key Account Manager, and finally as an OEM Application Manager, North America. Dan's responsibilities included application identification and development, account management and penetration, product service and support, business development, and technical sales for the OEM division.

Since 2019, they have been working as the Global Sales Manager - Life Science OEM at Lumencor, Inc. Dan's role involves creating tailored OEM solid-state illumination systems by bringing together the world’s leading life science companies with Lumencor’s experienced optical-mechanical engineering teams. Dan also has global Life Science OEM market segment responsibility.

Dan Christensen, Ph.D. received their Ph.D. in Optics from the University of Rochester in 2013. Prior to this, they obtained an MS in Optics from the same university in 2008. Dan also studied Physics, Mathematics (minor) and Computer Science (emphasis) at Brigham Young University, from which they graduated with a BS in 2007.