Applied Materials, Inc. today announced that Dr. Robert Visser has received a 2016 Special Recognition Award from the Society of Information Display, an industry organization comprised of the top scientists, engineers, corporate researchers and business people of the display field. The award is for his “pioneering research and commercialization of new display technologies related to OLEDs*, LCD* materials and barrier films, including encapsulation technologies for OLED and flexible displays.” Dr. Visser is senior director of advanced chemistry and materials for the Advanced Technology Group at Applied Materials, where he is responsible for creating business opportunities in new and adjacent markets related to displays and roll-to-roll barrier films, as well as developing novel chemistries for semiconductor manufacturing.
“Robert contributed to turning the concept of flexible displays into a reality by helping establish the principles for successful encapsulation of highly sensitive devices, such as OLED displays,” said Dr. Om Nalamasu, senior vice president and CTO of Applied Materials. “Robert continues to be a critical source of insight and expertise on display materials, and I congratulate him on this well-deserved award.”
Dr. Visser’s work in the display industry spans more than three decades. Most recently at Applied, he helped the display group develop new thin-film encapsulation systems that enable the volume production of high-resolution, thin and lightweight flexible OLED displays for mobile products and TVs. He also works closely with the Roll-to-Roll Coating Products Division to design new equipment for depositing barrier films that can be used throughout the world for a wide variety of flexible packaging and labeling applications.
Prior to joining Applied, Dr. Visser was CTO of Vitex Systems, where he led a multi-disciplinary team to demonstrate and refine multi-layer barrier technology for use in OLED displays. This work eventually became the basis on which many of today’s plastic, curved OLED displays are built. Dr. Visser began his career at Philips Research, where he led several research teams and helped create the PolyLED business serving as the group’s CEO and CTO. Under his leadership, the group launched one of the first OLED displays on the market in 2002. Also during this time he worked with other researchers and members of academia to make significant improvements in performance and yield of early OLED display manufacturing.
Dr. Visser 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.