Hans Hentzell was born in Ystad and grew up in Kalmar, Sweden.  He gained his PhD in Thin Film Physics at Linköping University in 1981, becoming an Assistant Professor in Thin Film Physics at Linköping University in 1985.

 

From 1982-1983 Dr Hentzell was a visiting scientist at IBM Research in Yorktown Heights and from 1983-1993 General Manager at the research institute for thin film technology and microelectronics at Linköping University.

 

Between 1985 and 1989 he was project manager for a Swedish initiative to establish design and prototyping facilities for custom design of gate arrays. The project was organised under the framework of the Swedish National Microelectronics Program.

 

1989-1993 Dr Hentzell became Project Manager for the Swedish Microsystem Program and from 1993-1998 he was Vice Managing Director for IMC, the Swedish Industrial Microelectrocs Center, with a special responsibility for market development.

 

In 1998–2005 he became Managing Director for Acreo, the Swedish research institute för optics and microelectronics and since 2005 he has been Managing Director of Swedish ICT, the holding company for all ICT research institutes in Sweden. Swedish ICT organise about 350 researchers and have 45 spin off companies with a total turnover of more than €150m, 2010. Acreo has production incubators for optical fibers, nanoelectronics and printed electronics that have fostered many of the spin off companies.

 

Paul W.M. Blom was born in Maastricht , The Netherlands, in 1965. He received his Ir. Degree (Physics) in 1988 and his Ph. D. Degree in 1992, respectively, from the Technical University Eindhoven, Eindhoven, The Netherlands. His thesis work was on picosecond charge carrier dynamics in GaAs quantum wells. At Philips Research Laboratories he was engaged in the electrical characterization of various oxidic thin-film devices, the electro-optical properties of polymer light-emitting diodes and the field of rewritable optical storage based on phase-change and magneto-optical recording using blue laser diodes. In May 2000 he was appointed as a Professor at the University of Groningen, where he was heading a group in the field of electrical and optical properties of organic semiconducting devices. The main research focus was on the device physics of polymeric light-emitting diodes, transistors, solar cells and memories. He co-authored nearly 200 papers in these research fields. In September 2008 he has been appointed as the Scientific Director of the Holst Centre in Eindhoven where the focus is on the realization of electronic systems in foil.