Barbara Paldus is currently a partner at Skymoon Ventures, where she is responsible for working with early stage companies commercializing optical and spectroscopic technologies.
She served as the CTO of Picarro since she founded the company in 1998. At Picarro, she was responsible for technology strategy, research innovation, and business development. She led the team that developed the company’s breakthrough photonic technology, which resulted in the introduction of a solid-state Cyan laser product in 2003 and cavity ring-down spectroscopy products in 2004.
She has 21 awarded patents, 12 pending patent applications, and has published over 30 journal and conference papers, as well as two book chapters, on cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) and lasers. She has been recognized with 12 research and academic awards, most recently the Adolph Lomb Prize (2001) by the OSA.
Barb received both her Ph.D. (1998) and M.S.E.E. (1994) degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University. She received her BS in electrical engineering and applied mathematics in 1993 from the University of Waterloo, in Canada.
