Who We Are

We push the limits of intelligent perception to answer humanity’s most important questions.

Ten years, five successive DARPA and NASA programs, led by our co-founder Dr. Saikat Guha before Diffraqtion existed to commercialize the work.

The sub-diffraction physics was developed for high-precision space domain awareness, and to find exoplanets that can support life, for missions like NASA's Habitable Worlds Observatory.

Roots at MIT, Maryland, and Arizona. A U.S. company, proudly built in Somerville, Massachusetts.

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University of Maryland logo in black and white with the text 'University of Maryland' in uppercase.
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Meet the Team

  • Abdelali Sajia, Ph.D.

    Sr. Quantum AI Scientist

    Ph.D. and patents in super-resolution AI imaging, and instructor at Columbia School of Engineering.

    Quantum theory → leet code translator.

    Bio

  • Ali Kazemi Jahromi, Ph.D.

    Lead Optical Engineer

    Ph.D. & Post-Doc in Optics at Caltech and UC Florida CREOL, Lead Optical Engineer in several photonic startups and companies including Viavi.

    Diffractive optics wizard.

    Bio
  • Young man sitting at a wooden table in a modern, industrial-style room, smiling at the camera. He is wearing a black t-shirt with a logo. On the table are a black water bottle, a laptop, and a tablet on a tripod. The background features brick walls, large windows, and colorful chairs.

    Bouke Edskes

    Software Engineer

    MIT grad in MechE & CS. Spent the last 6 years developing AI cameras at Tesla, Magna, Kasalis & Optimus Ride.

    Universal camera hacker.

    Bio
  • A man in a black T-shirt standing behind a round table in an office or reception area. Behind him, a sign displays the words "Somerville" and "Houston" with clocks showing different times. There are plants and office equipment visible in the background.

    Chris Canario, MBA

    Business Development Lead

    7+ years in the space industry at NASA, Blue Origin, BAE, and Axiom Space.

    ‍Harvard MBA and Texas A&M Aerospace Engineer.

    Lead dealmaker and aerospace wiz.

    Bio
  • Headshot of a woman with long black hair wearing a dark blazer and maroon blouse, smiling at the camera against a gray background.

    Christine Wang, Ph.D.

    Co-Founder, CTO

    20+ years in optics and photonics R&D; ex-Director of Optics and Photonics at Riverside Research and at Draper Labs. 

    Harvard Ph.D. in Physics, and Post-doc at Max-Planck Institute and EPFL.

    Conductor of our quantum, optics, and software orchestra.

    Bio
  • A smiling man standing next to a large telescope outdoors on a rooftop, with a white building and greenery in the background.

    Itay Ozer, Ph.D.

    Sr. Forward Deployed Engineer

    Ph.D. in Optics from University of Maryland with Saikat Guha, award-winning patent inventor, Internships at Lockheed Martin and Applied Materials.

    Inventor on the Ground.

    Bio
  • Man in black shirt holding a box, standing in front of a digital display, with green chairs behind him.

    Johannes Galatsanos

    Co-Founder, CEO

    MIT and Oxford grad in AI, Quantum Tech, and Entrepreneurship. 15+ years in building cutting-edge AI tech and scaling teams, latest as Executive Director at Novartis.

    Chief Evangelist of our sub-Diffraqtion vision.

    Bio
  • Man conducting scientific experiment with wires and equipment in a laboratory.

    Johnny Peng, Ph.D.

    Lead Optical System Engineer

    Ph.D. in Optics, Post-Doc at Harvard, Lead Optical Engineer in several photonics startups.

    Scaling and productization pro.

    Bio
  • Mark Michael

    Mark Michael

    Head of Product

    Ex-CTO and Co-Founder of Kepler Communications, one of the largest space startups in the world.

    MS in Electrical Engineering from University of Toronto.

    Ultimate New Space veteran.

    Bio

  • Peter Kazlas, Ph.D.

    Head of Engineering

    25+ years taking novel optics from lab bench to volume production, including quantum dot displays at QD Vision (acquired by Samsung) and e-paper at E Ink and ClearInk.

    PhD in Optics from UC Boulder.

    Our lab-to-fab translator.

    Bio
  • Three men working with electronic equipment, oscilloscopes, and monitors in a dark room, possibly conducting experiments or tests.

    Prof. Saikat Guha, Ph.D.

    Co-Founder, Chief Scientific Advisor

    Dist. Chair Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Maryland, Director of the NSF Center for Quantum Networks, and IEEE Fellow.

    Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from MIT.

    Mastermind of theory and hardware.

    Bio
  • Miniature Australian Shepherd

    Galileo

    Chief Dog Officer, Mascot

    5+ years of working with Christine as a Miniature Australian Shepherd and being the best boy. Joined Diffraqtion as our mascot and namesake for our first mission, Galileo-1.

    Bio
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