People
Vijaysekhar Jayaraman
Dr. Jayaraman is the founder of Praevium Research, and principal investigator on all of Praevium’s research and development efforts. He received his BS/MS in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1985, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from University of California, Santa Barbara in 1994. From 1985-1988, Dr. Jayaraman was a staff member at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, where he contributed to the development of a space-based optical heterodyne communication system.
Prior to founding Praevium Research in 2001, Dr. Jayaraman’s work included the first demonstration of the SGDBR tunable laser while a graduate student at UCSB. This device has since been deployed worldwide in commercial wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) networks. Dr. Jayaraman also contributed to the early development of electrically and optically pumped 1300 nm VCSELs while employed at Optical Concepts/W.L Gore and associates and UCSB . At Praevium, he has spearheaded much of the work described on the Technology page.
Marty grew up in San Diego, California and in 1985 his MA in Education/Counseling led him to Santa Barbara where he worked in student life at Westmont College for seven years. He then went on to earn a California Multiple Subjects Teaching Credential, a Social Sciences Credential, and Bilingual Certificate of Competency. During his 17-year teaching career he was distinguished in 2007 as an Outstanding Educator in Santa Barbara County specializing in ancient cultures and earth sciences, and in 2009 was selected as the tri-county Geology Teacher of the Year by Coast Geological Survey. In 2010 Marty left regular classroom teaching in order to direct Santa Barbara A Rocha, a Christian conservation organization. This involved educational outreach, practical environmental science, community outreach, and the supervision of the Five Loaves Farm, a 3-acre organic farm committed to growing top quality produce donated free of charge to the hungry poor of Santa Barbara. The farm now operates independently as the Good Dirt Farm. It was at this same time that Marty started working with Praevium Research taking on the tasks of cleanroom processing, device testing and research, IT, and office management. Marty continues to work with groups of students to do hands-on environmental science, having run numerous summer Creation Care Camps over the past three years and a watershed science class with the Santa Barbara Charter Home Based Partnership.
Marty Roberston
Chris Burgner
Chris Burgner graduated from UCSB with a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, from the research group of Dr. Kimberly Turner. At Praevium he is the expert in all things MEMS, along with heading up the testing and data management for MEMS-VCSEL devices.