Jeff Braun

June 17, 2026 Francois Martin

Jeff Braun drives the research and development of next-generation thermal metrology platforms at Laser Thermal, alongside the programs that bring them from concept to deployment.
He earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of Virginia, where he invented and patented Steady-State Thermoreflectance, the measurement method at the core of one of Laser Thermal’s primary instrument platforms. Before joining Laser Thermal, he served as a program manager at Northrop Grumman, working in superconducting and quantum computing as well as digital transformation. Earlier in his career, he held roles in systems engineering and intelligence analysis at the Office of Naval Intelligence.
At Laser Thermal, Jeff leads government and commercial programs, including serving as principal investigator for R&D contracts. Additionally, Jeff has invented the thermo-optical plane source (TOPS) technique and led the product development to transition it into our commercial product. His combination of deep metrology expertise and program management experience allows him to bridge the gap between scientific innovation and the operational and contractual demands of bringing advanced instrumentation to market.
Outside of work, Jeff loves being a dad and his hobbies include skiing, kayaking, and cooking.

Francois Martin

Francois Martin

Francois Martin is Marketing Manager at Laser Thermal. The company makes precision instruments for non-contact, non-destructive thermal conductivity measurement, serving the semiconductor, power electronics and thermal management industries. He oversees how Laser Thermal tells its story, from technical content and sales collateral to video production, webinars and trade show presence. The goal is to make the company's science clear and useful to the engineers and researchers who rely on accurate thermal data. Francois brings more than 25 years of marketing and executive leadership experience. He was VP of Marketing at Nelson Miller Group, an outsourced manufacturing provider for OEMs. Before that, he spent more than two decades at WorldStrides, rising from Marketing Director to Senior Vice President in the Office of the CEO. He is adjunct faculty in the MBA program at James Madison University's College of Business, where he teaches Project Management. Francois holds an MBA in Marketing from George Washington University and a Graduate Certificate in Project Management from the University of Virginia.