Conference “Eye4Sky: from research to the creation of a technology company”

On Friday, October 11 at 10:30 am, the conference entitled “Eye4Sky: from research to the creation of a space optical technology company” will be given by Dr. Alberto Álvarez Herrero, Research Professor at the National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA) and co-founder of the first spinoff of INTA, the company Eye4Sky Technologies S.L., which commercializes liquid crystal technology for space applications, will take place at the VALONA building located on the campus of Elche.

The conference is part of the 2nd Doctoral Conference of the Industrial and Telecommunication Technologies program (TECNIT), as well as the seminar program of the Institute of Bioengineering. It is organized by Professor Mª del Mar Sánchez López, researcher at the Institute of Bioengineering and member of the academic committee of the TECNIT PhD program.

In this conference, Dr. Alberto Álvarez Herrero will show how the deep-tech startup Eye4Sky arose, and will introduce the NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) Solar Physics projects in which the INTA Optics Department has been participating since 2002. In particular, the technology developed in space-qualified liquid crystal modulators will be described, as well as its applications and the projects in which Eye4Sky is currently involved.He will also reflect on the steps, difficulties and strategies that made this entrepreneurial project a reality and how all of this benefits INTA, its researchers and Society. The creation of spinoffs and startups promoted by the research groups themselves is considered one of the most effective tools and, therefore, is being promoted as part of the professional career of researchers.

Alberto Álvarez Herrero holds a PhD in Physics from the Complutense University of Madrid and is head of the Optical Technologies Development Area at INTA, where he develops space optical instrumentation. His research focuses on new technologies, techniques, materials and devices to be used in payloads for space missions. Polarimetry and ellipsometry are his main areas of expertise. The team he leads has developed the first liquid crystal-based polarization modulator for a space telescope. He is co-founder of the first spinoff of INTA, the company Eye4Sky Technologies S.L., which commercializes this technology for multiple space applications. The developed devices, among other relevant contributions such as the Full Disc Telescope, are on board the Solar Orbiter mission launched in 2020 and currently in operation. He has been working for many years on Solar Physics missions and is currently also involved in the development of quantum communication space systems. Author of more than 95 scientific publications referenced in Scopus, he has participated in 27 R&D projects, being principal investigator in 15 of them and consortium coordinator in four occasions.He is Co-Principal Investigator and member of the PHI Instrument Development Committee for the Solar Orbiter mission of the European Space Agency. Since 2003 he is a scientific collaborator and associate professor at the Complutense University of Madrid, where he has supervised three doctoral theses and has three more in progress.