SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, has announced that Mark Itzler, CEO and chief technology officer of sensor developer Princeton Lightwave Inc., has been named a fellow.

SPIE fellows are members of distinction who have made significant scientific and technical contributions in the multidisciplinary fields of optics, photonics and imaging. They are honored for their technical achievement and service to the general optics community, as well as SPIE in particular. There have been 1200 SPIE fellows since the society’s inception in 1955.

Itzler holds more than twenty patents and has led the development of numerous products involving avalanche photodiodes for applications ranging from high-bandwidth telecommunications to single-photon lidar imaging and quantum communications. Over the past two decades, Itzler has authored more than 100 papers and has chaired annual conferences focused on photodetector- and photon-counting technology. He was named a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2011.

At Princeton Lightwave, where he has been CEO for the past five years, Itzler has championed the development and commercialization of Geiger-mode technology for 3D imaging and has established the company as a major manufacturer of single-photon lidar products. These products are already in use for defense targeting, aerial mapping and autonomous navigation. The company is currently developing the use of Geiger-mode lidar for driverless cars.

SPIE is an educational not-for-profit organization that aims to advance light-based science, engineering and technology.