Changing of the Guard
New ITL Leadership
Dr. Michael Lesser after a successful transfer of ITL to its new home in the Applied Research Building (ARB) on the University of Arizona campus, perhaps contemplating his upcoming retirement.
After 25 years as the director and founder of ITL, Dr. Michael Lesser is stepping into retirement. A new leadership team will be taking over to continue the lab's important contributions to scientific imaging sensors, consisting of Dr. Jarron Leisenring as the new ITL Director and Andre Wong as Deputy Director and Chief Engineer.
A Research Professor at Steward Observatory, Dr. Leisenring joins ITL after spending the last 10+ years working on JWST NIRCam. He specializes in advancing infrared (IR) detector technology, focusing on discovering and characterizing exoplanets orbiting other stars via direct imaging observations. In 2013, Dr. Leisenring joined the NIRCam team (PI: Dr. Marcia Rieke) at the University of Arizona where he optimized and characterized the instrument’s IR detectors and their control electronics, planned the exoplanet and disk imaging programs as part of the science team, and led the commissioning and calibration effort for NIRCam's coronagraphic observing mode after the launch of JWST in Dec 2021. Dr. Leisenring has worked on various other detector-related projects, including designing, assembling, and commissioning the LMIRcam instrument for the Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer; upgrading detectors systems for multiple systems; and investigating novel detector readouts for ground-based mid-IR observations (e.g., Teledyne GeoSnap device). He has a PhD in astronomy from the University of Virginia.
Andre Wong is currently a principal systems engineer at Steward with more than a decade of experience implementing space-based detectors and camera systems for instruments spanning astronomy, planetary science, Earth observations, and technology development projects. Andre started his career in 2010 as a test engineer for Teledyne Imaging Sensors working on IR sensors for Astronomy and Space applications, including for the JWST and Euclid missions. Between 2014 and 2019, Andre was an engineer for the Flight Instrument Detectors & Camera Systems Group at JPL. There he was an element lead and contract technical manager for numerous detector and instrument projects and proposals including NEO Surveyor (formerly NEOCam), CASE (US contribution to ESA’s ARIEL project), DSOC, and ECOSTRESS. In 2019, he moved to the Lunar Planetary Lab at UA to lead the development of the Focal Plane Modules for NEO Surveyor before transitioning to Steward Observatory in 2023. Andre has a master’s in astronomy from the University of Virginia.
ITL is dedicated to advancing scientific and industrial sciences by developing enabling technologies for semiconductor and photonic devices. ITL’s core capabilities include wet etching, thin film deposition, packaging, metrology, and sensor characterization to optimize the performance of backside illuminated sensors. Over 4,000 sensors and other systems have been delivered to date to the worldwide scientific and industrial imaging communities. They are used in astronomy, Earth observing, semiconductor applications, high energy physics, and for many other applications. ITL is operated by the Steward Observatory at The University of Arizona and is affiliated with the Center for Semiconductor Manufacturing.