Kathleen Vaeth, PhD

1994 Hertz Fellow
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Kathleen Vaeth is the Director of User Experience and Program Manager at OLEDWorks, global leader in the development and production of innovative organic light-emitting diode (OLED) lighting solutions.

Kathleen earned her B.S. degree in chemical engineering from Cornell University in 1994, and her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to her role at OLEDWorks, she was the vice president of engineering at MicroGen Systems, Inc., a tech startup company based in Rochester, New York, focused on developing Micro Electrical Mechanical (MEMS)-based piezoelectric energy harvesting technology. Prior to joining MicroGen Systems, Vaeth spent 12 years at Eastman Kodak as senior research scientist in the Kodak Research Labs, where she worked in the areas of MEMS microfluids, organic electronics, controlled release chemistry in thin films, barrier coatings for flexible subtrates, vapor deposited polymers, and piezoelectric materials and actuators. She also served as the director for future technologies for the Functional Printing Business Unit.

Kathleen’s research interests spans the design, fabrication, and characterization of devices, relating their performance to the materials used in their construction. She has 20 publications and 16 issues U.S. patents.

“What separates chemical engineering from other types of training is the ability to combine chemistry, physics, biology, transport phenomena, thermodynamics, and unit operations at a systems level to solve complex problems. This broad training enables chemical engineers to have an impact in a wide variety of fields, and indeed, in my own career I have worked on technologies ranging from OLED displays, photothermographic X-ray film, inkjet printing, flexible barrier films, sterilization of food and medical instruments, and energy harvesting."
– Kathleen Vaeth

Graduate Studies

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Chemical Engineering
Parylene-based Chemical Vapor Deposition of Electroluminescent Polymer Films used in Polymer Light-emitting Diodes

Undergraduate Studies

Cornell University

Awards

Optical Society of America: Senior Member
Kodak Research Scientific Council: Member-at-Large
Kodak Material Science Research Council
MIT Chemical Engineering Outstanding Student Seminar Award
Tau Beta Pi Honor Society
Eastman Kodak Scholar, Cornell Presidential Scholar
Society of Women Engineers Scholarship, Society of Plastics Engineers Scholarship
Dow Chemical’s “Outstanding Junior Chemical Engineer” Award