BA-SID Professional Person Spotlight

Robert Visser

Vice President, Engineering, Office of the CTO

Applied Materials, Inc.

Robert Visser is the Vice President of Engineering Technology in the Office of the CTO at Applied Materials, Inc. In his role, he is responsible for creating business opportunities in new and adjacent markets related to advanced displays, optical components for augmented reality, ‘flat optics’ (metasurface based optics), co-packaged optics and advanced packaging solutions. He also advises Applied’s chemistry group in India at IIT Mumbai and is looking at the role of new materials in quantum technology to explore new growth opportunities for Applied Materials in quantum computing, quantum communication, and quantum sensing.

With almost four decades of experience in the display industry and materials engineering, his contributions have commercialized flat panel display manufacturing and uncovered breakthroughs in areas ranging from photolithography, plasma physics, plasma etching, spectroscopy, organic electronics (TFTs and NLO), and liquid crystal-based optics. Virtually every OLED display made today uses technology elements that he helped pioneer during his career.

Robert received the FlexTech award in 2016 and SID Special Award in 2018 respectively. In 2020 he was recognized by the Society of Information Display (SID) with the Fellows Award for his contributions to the development and commercialization of OLED technology, and specifically to thin film encapsulation solutions. Robert also serves as a member of the SID award committee and program committees for manufacturing, as well as AR/VR/MR topics. In 2023, Robert was elected as a board member of the Materials Research Society (MRS).

He holds a master’s degree in theoretical organic chemistry and physics, and a Ph.D. in physical and organic chemistry, both from Leiden University, Netherlands. He has numerous patents and publications to his name.

Robert Visser’s LinkedIn