Jetalon

Jerry Elkind, Ph.D.
Advisor

Dr. Jerry Elkind is currently the Founder of Stellar Generation, LLC - a brand new start-up focused on developing ultra clean energy technology.

Prior to starting Stellar Generation, Dr. Elkind spent 21 years at Texas Instruments, Inc., where as Senior Member of the Technical Staff, he held a number of key positions overseeing both technology and business development. Most recently, he managed business, product, and engineering development for chips in medical applications - including medical imaging equipment, consumer devices and implantables - which is an area of high visibility at TI, since it promises to be a key element its future growth. Prior to this, Dr. Elkind directed a chemical- and bio-sensor business for TI for over 10 years, from its earliest technology development through commercialization - ultimately licensing it for three diverse applications, including protein screening for drug development, concentration monitoring in semiconductor manufacturing, and real-time fuel concentration control in fuel cells. In 1999, this sensor won Electronic Products Product-of-the-Year award. Dr. Elkind began his career at TI developing advanced processes for manufacturing infrared chips that use mercury-cadmium-telluride - an alternative to silicon for space and defense applications. He quickly became a foremost expert in understanding and ameliorating defects induced in this complex material, and he ultimately became the development engineering manager for all infrared device fabrication. Following this, he worked in process engineering for manufacturing silicon chips and led the implementation of an industry leading universal manufacturing fault-detection system that is still in use today throughout TI. Dr. Elkind holds eighteen issued patents and has co-authored more than forty papers in peer-reviewed journals papers.

Prior to joining TI, Dr. Elkind held a post-doctoral fellowship at Rice University with Dr. Richard Smalley, studying gas phase cluster chemistry during the pivotal time during which Dr. Smalley and his team made the Nobel Prize winning discovery of nanostructures in carbon clusters. Through his study of ion beam chemistry, Dr. Elkind received a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from U.C. Berkeley (1986). He studied organic synthesis and enzyme kinetics at Brandeis University to simultaneously receive M.A. and B.A. degrees with high honors in chemistry (1981).

Dr. Elkind is a scuba diver, poker player, private pilot and avid skydiver. With over 5,000 skydives, he has won a gold medal and more than twenty silver and bronze medals at the U.S. National Skydiving Championships since 1990. He has also participated in two world-record skydives for the most skydivers in formation, with 200 skydivers in 1992 and 300 skydivers in 2002.