Founder, former CEO of IPG Photonics dies

Oxford, Mass.-based IPG Photonics, a provider of high-power fiber lasers and amplifiers, has announced that Dr. Valentin P. Gapontsev has died. He founded the company’s predecessor in 1990 and served as IPG’s chairman since the company’s founding and its CEO until April 2021.

Gapontsev’s scientific innovations and business vision led to the creation of a vertically integrated business employing more than 6,000 worldwide. He is named inventor on more than 100 patents and author of over 200 scientific papers.

In 2006 he was awarded the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Industrial Products and Services in New England, and in 2009 he was awarded the Arthur L. Schawlow Award by the Laser Institute of America. In 2011 he received the Russian Federation National Award in Science and Technology, and he was selected as a fellow of the Optical Society of America. In 2010 the SPIE listed Gapontsev as one of 28 “Laser Luminaries” who made substantial contributions to lasers during the 50 years since lasers were invented.