There have been some changes at LIGHT CONVERSION, a manufacturer of lasers and laser systems. After 25 years of running the company, Dr Algirdas Juozapavičius is assigning the helm to Dr Martynas Barkauskas. Dr Algirdas Juozapavičius will continue as an adviser to the company’s management. ‘After the intensive work that lasted a quarter of a century, time has come to devote more attention to the family and activities that I haven’t had the time for,’ said Dr Algirdas Juozapavičius.
Dr Algirdas Juozapavičius has been the head of the company that makes lasers for research, industry, and medicine, since its inception in 1994. The business was born out of research work developing innovative light technology. The physicist and a few other likeminded peers founded a company that has been putting Lithuania’s name and the achievements of the researchers working at it on the map for twenty-five years already with its work. Under Dr Juozapavičius, LIGHT CONVERSION has been awarded various business trophies.
In 2018 alone the company earned two innovation awards: a national one from the Lithuanian Innovation Centre, and an international prize from the Baltic Assembly and the Baltic Assembly and the Baltic Association of Science/Technology Parks and Innovation Centres. The company has been acclaimed for its ample investments into research and experimental development, for the development and production of high-value products, and for its enormous potential to grow on international markets. The company has been repeatedly awarded the export, Product of the Year trophies and various international innovation prizes. In 2007, LIGHT CONVERSION was granted the National Progress Award for mustering the Lithuanian laser science and industry for a breakthrough into the global markets.
Dr Algirdas Juozapavičius has been commended for his personal achievements as well. In 2018, for merit to Lithuania and promotion of the country’s name around the world he was given the Knight’s Cross of the Order for Merit to Lithuania and received a CEO of the Year nomination; in 2019, he was awarded a St Christopher statue by the city of Vilnius for merit to science and business.
LIGHT CONVERSION NEW CEO
The company’s new CEO, Dr Martynas Barkauskas, began his career in LIGHT CONVERSION back in 2009, when he worked as an engineer constructor at the Laser Department; later, he became head of the Laser Department’s service team, and in 2014 became the head of the Sales Department. In 2009, he defended a thesis in the field of physical science titled ‘Kinetic Spectroscopy of Nonlinear Crystals and Photochromic Switches’ and was awarded a doctoral degree of science.
The year 2019 is a time of change at LIGHT CONVERSION. On February 28, the company marked its 25th anniversary. In February 2019, UAB MGF Šviesos Konversija had its name officially changed to LIGHT CONVERSION, UAB. There have been some changes in the company’s management as well: the company’s board was appointed with Professor Emeritus Habil. Dr Algis Petras Piskarskas and Dr Romualdas Danielius, Mykolas Juozapavičius, Marc Watremez, Dominykas Vizbaras as its members.
About LIGHT CONVERSION
The products of LIGHT CONVERSION, UAB, a manufacturer of laser systems, are exported to more than 40 countries worldwide. Its main clients are industrial companies and scientific institutions, its key products, femtosecond lasers and their systems, most of them exported to major global scientific and industrial centres in Germany, Japan, the US, China, Great Britain. Currently, the company has dealers and partners in European, North American, and Asian countries, as well as branches in the US, China, and South Korea.
Over the past few years, the company has been growing and expanding rapidly. In 2013, it moved into a new 4,050 sq. m building, which now houses laser and nonlinear optic device manufacturing and research departments, a cleanroom unit, and the administration. The summer of 2018 marked the inauguration of a new 2,500 block where manufacture is being developed, research done, and new cutting-edge lasers designed. The total area of scientific and manufacturing facilities has grown to over 6,500 sq. m. New lasers and laser systems are developed in 20 scientific and manufacturing laboratories, with 9 more laboratories to be launched in the nearest future.