Tomasz Piotr Jannson

Dr. Tomasz Jannson, Senior Vice President, Chief Technology Officer, of Physical Optics Corporation (POC) passed away on April 25, 2018, after a long illness. Tomasz was born May 19, 1943 to Janina Lubieniecka in Warsaw, Poland, and grew up just outside Warsaw in a small village called Sochocin. In high school, Tomasz enjoyed studying chemistry, physics and particularly Einstein’s “Theory of Relativity”. He received B.S.E.E in 1965, his M.S.E.E. in 1968 and then his Ph.D. in Applied Optics in 1973 from Warsaw Technical University, where he continued his research as faculty member, was director of two optical laboratories, and Principal Investigator of several research programs in the areas of information processing, holography, and electro-optics.

While a Professor at Warsaw Technical University, he met Joanna, who had just earned her M.S. in Physics (quantum optics) in 1974. They were married on January 13, 1977, and have been working together ever since. Tomasz has said, “It was a fantastic cooperation from the beginning, and I would wish for anybody to work in such a ‘coherent’ way.”

After coming to the United States in 1981, Tomasz held many positions including General Manager and Chief Optical Scientist of the R&D division of National Technical Systems, Inc. (1980-1981), and Senior Research Scientist at Northrop Research Center (1982-1985), where he co-invented Northrop's neuro-optic processor architecture. Tomasz began working at POC in 1985 as Vice President for Research & Development and held this position until 1988 when he became Vice President for the Products & Engineering Division until 1990. Tomasz then became a Vice President & General Manager of the Applied Technologies Division until he became POC’s Chief Technology Officer in 1996 – a position he held until now. Throughout his career at POC, Tomasz was a leading force in orienting the company toward applications and product-oriented photonic technologies. Over the years, Tomasz provided technical and managerial leadership on a large number of technologies that began with Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programs and were later transitioned into production both within POC and in numerous spin-off companies and license agreements. Tomasz was a prolific technical writer who authored or contributed to hundreds of technical papers, over a hundred patent and patent applications, and co-author of three books. Tomasz was also a member of IEEE, the Optical Society of America, and elected a Fellow of SPIE in July, 1999.

Tomasz is survived by his wife, Dr. Joanna Jannson, President & CEO of POC, and hundreds of current and former employees of POC who were blessed with his guidance, mentorship, and friendship. Although saddened by his loss, we look forward to the continuance of the successful company Tomasz helped establish, and to the greater accomplishments we will achieve in his memory.

In lieu of flowers, you may make a donation in honor of Tomasz to the Small Business Technology Council (SBTC). Donations are handled thru the SBTC website ( www.sbtc.org ), click on the headline story about Tomasz, and follow the link at the bottom to donate.