Paul Meissner is the new Vice President and General Manager of Photonics Platforms Business reporting directly to Applied’s Chief Technology Officer Om Nalamasu. The Photonics Platforms Business is the successor organization to Engineered Optics.  A native of the Silicon Valley, Paul graduated Cum Laude from UC Berkeley in Materials Science and as the #1 student in Materials Science with his MS and PhD from in Photonic Materials from Stanford University with a minor in Electrical Engineering.  He spent 9 years at Applied Materials serving in a variety of technical and marketing roles before becoming the first GM of the group that eventually became FEP.  Paul moved to the Photonics Industry in 2003 taking senior executive positions with Coherent Inc. and leading two venture backed startups to successful exits as CEO.  After his most recent exit, Paul began working as a consultant to Applied to develop the current strategy for Applied to lead the transformation in Photonic Devices, which created the opportunity for him to rejoin the company to lead the efforts in glass based solutions for Augmented Reality and High Performance Photonic Interconnects for AI as well as a broad range of future applications.