Olsen Credit - www.spacefacts.de

Personal: Male, Divorced, Two. Born in Brooklyn, New York, USA. PhD Inactive Entered space service: 6 July 2005. Left space service: 11 October 2005. Number of Flights: 1.00. Total Time: 9.89 days.

Official Sensors Unlimited Biography as of October 2005

Gregory H. Olsen, Ph.D. is chairman of the Board of Directors and co-founder of Sensors Unlimited Inc., a developer and manufacturer of optoelectronic devices for fiber optic communications systems, photonic and near infrared imaging devices. This cutting edge camera technology is revolutionizing detection capabilities and providing reliable, high performance products used for a variety of critical military, national security, telecommunications and industrial applications such as covert surveillance, machine vision, night vision, health and safety protocols, historical art inspection and many others.

Dr. Olsen co-founded Sensors Unlimited in 1991. Under his direction, the company has been profitable since its inception and grown into a world-class fiber optic component design, fabrication and supply operation without any outside investment. Sensors Unlimited dominates the supply and optimization of indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) technology and produces products that are technically superior to anything else in the market. InGaAs is essentially a photo-receptive semiconductor, sensitive to light in a particular range and the critical component of this camera technology. In 2000, Finisar Corp. acquired Sensors Unlimited for $700 million. Then in 2002, Olsen orchestrated a management buyback of the company.

In 1984, prior to his work at Sensors Unlimited, Dr. Olsen founded EPITAXX Inc., a high-technology company that manufactured fiber optic detectors and emitters. EPITAXX was aquired twice, once in 1990 by Nippon Sheet Glass for $12 million and again in 1999 by JDS Uniphase for $400 million. Before founding EPITAXX, Dr. Olsen was a member of the technical staff at RCA Laboratories (now Sarnoff Corporation in Princeton, New Jersey). At RCA, he developed numerous innovations in the field of optoelectronics, including the commercialization of InGaAs photodetectors and lasers. At RCA Laboratories, Dr. Olsen brought major innovations to the hydride vapor phase crystal growth of InGaAsP alloys and developed long-wavelength lasers and detectors. His fundamental studies on crystal defects brought about marked improvements in this highly technical industry. This work led to the commercial introduction of InGaAsP devices for fiber optics, near-infrared instrumentation and imaging applications that have since revolutionized our daily lives.

Dr. Olsen is an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Fellow and holds 12 U.S. patents. He has received numerous awards for his extensive accomplishments, including: the prestigious IEEE Laser & Electro-Optics Society (LEOS) "Aron Kressel" award for his unique and visionary work in progressing the use of InGaAs detectors for viable and pragmatic purposes and several RCA Laboratories' "Outstanding Achievement" awards. In addition, he was the first recipient of the American Association for Crystal Growth's "Young Authors" award. He was also named the New Jersey Institute of Technology's "Inventor of the Year", The United States Small Business Administration's "New Jersey Small Business Person of the Year", and the Arthur Young/Inc. Magazine "Entrepreneur of the Year".

Under Dr. Olsen's stewardship, Sensors Unlimited was named "Electronics Company of the Year" by the New Jersey Technology Council and was acknowledged multiple times by Deloitte & Touche in its celebrated "New Jersey Fast 50", which ranks the fastest growing New Jersey technology companies. The company was also recognized by PricewaterhouseCoopers and Business News New Jersey as the top privately held company in New Jersey.

Dr. Olsen is a noted lecturer and author. He has delivered numerous lectures and was named a Distinguished Lecturer by the IEEE & LEOS. Dr. Olsen has written more than 100 papers, co-authored several books on crystal growth and semiconductor devices and frequently authors general interest articles for trade journals.

Dr. Olsen serves on advisory committees to Princeton University, the University of Southern California Photonics Center, the University of Florida Microelectronics Center, the University of Virginia and the City College of New York. He currently is a member of the Board of Directors of Princeton Power Systems, Achieve 3000 and Eye Response Technologies.

Dr. Olsen has taken a leadership role in many technical societies, including the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE), the Electrochemical Society, IEEE Electro, IEEE & LEOS and the NJ Crystal Growth Association. He has contributed throughout his career to numerous technical conferences, including AACG Conferences, Optical Fiber Conferences (OFC) and LEOS Conferences. He is a member of the LEOS Board of Governors and an investor in the New Jersey Technology Council Venture Fund. Dr. Olsen started his career as a visiting scientist in the Physics Department at the University of Port Elizabeth, South Africa. He received a B.S. in physics, a BSEE and M.S. in physics (magna cum laude) from Fairleigh Dickinson University and a Ph.D. in materials science from the University of Virginia.

• 1 October 2005 Flight: ISS EP-9. Flight Up: Soyuz TMA-7. Flight Back: Soyuz TMA-6. Flight Time: 9.89 days.

15 April 2005 - Soyuz TMA-6. Assignment: Return Crew. Flight: ISS EO-11, ISS EP-8, ISS EO-10. The Soyuz TMA-6 docked with International Space Station's Pirs module at 02:20 GMT on April 17. Commander of the long-duration EO-11 crew was Russian cosmonaut Sergey Krikalyov. Flight engineer and science officer was American astronaut John Phillips. Italian Roberto Vittori accompanied the EO-10 crew aboard Soyuz TMA-6 to the station on the European Space Agency EP-8 Eneide mission.

A Soyuz spacecraft carried Expedition 12 Commander and NASA Science Officer William ...more...

Expedition 11 Commander Sergei Krikalev and NASA Science Officer John Phillips also ...more...

With Expedition 12 Flight Engineer and Soyuz Commander Valery Tokarev at the controls, ...more...

McArthur, Tokarev and Olsen arrived at the space station at 12:27 a.m. CDT Monday, ...more...

The Soyuz spacecraft with Krikalev, Phillips and Olsen landed in north-central Kazakhstan, ...more...