Gregory Olsen

Member of Board of Trustees, alumnus BS 1966; BSEE, MS 1968

Olsen was the third private citizen to travel to the International Space Station (ISS). After an illustrious career as a research scientist and entrepreneur, Olsen is now president of GHO Ventures in Princeton, N.J., an “angel” investments firm. He received his BS Physics (1966), BSEE and MS Physics (1968) from Fairleigh Dickinson University, then was awarded a Ph.D. in Materials Science from the University of Virginia (1971). Olsen founded EPITAXX, a fiber-optic detector manufacturer in 1984, and it was sold in 1990 for $12 million. He then founded Sensors Unlimited, a near-infrared camera manufacturer in 1992 with Marshall Cohen. Sensors was sold to Finisar Corp. for $600 million in 2000, repurchased by the management team in 2002 for $6 million, and then sold again to Goodrich, Corp. in 2005 for $60 million.