Sivalingam Sivananthan, Distinguished Professor and Director, Microphysics Laboratory, University of Illinois at Chicago; Founder, Sivananthan Laboratories, Inc. and Institute for Solar Photovoltaic Innovation, Research, and Edu-training, Naperville, IL
Dr. Sivalingam Sivananthan is a College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor and Director of the Microphysics Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is also the founder of the high-tech, Bell Labs-styled incubator, Sivananthan Laboratories, Inc., and its group companies, based in Bolingbrook, Illinois.
Born in Chavakacheri, Sri Lanka, Dr. Sivananthan is a world-renowned physicist as well as a successful entrepreneur in creating advanced military infrared night vision technology. The same technology at the heart of his night vision technology has also served as the platform for groundbreaking, next generation solar cells. To that end, he helped found InSPIRE, a nonprofit Institute for Solar Photovoltaic Innovation, Research, and Edu-training, whose mission is training Illinois's workforce and Illinois college and high school students to create a renewable energy and solar eco-systems in Illinois.