XACTIV Fellows are recognized experts, senior technologists, professors, or were previously senior technical managers within major corporations who are called on to support XACTIV programs requiring in-depth specialized knowledge and experience.
Lawrence K. Agbezuge, Sc.D. has over 30 years industrial and over 7 years academic experience. At Exxon Production Research, he spent 5 years performing drilling riser simulations and analyses, and the testing/qualification of buoyancy systems for offshore drilling. At Scott Paper Company, he spent 2 years modeling the Yankee dryer in order to tweak the dryer’s operational parameters for increased production. At Xerox, he spent most of his 24 years modeling and studying ink-paper deformation during ink jet printing. He also created software that was utilized for calibrating scanners to faithfully reproduce original colors. He holds a patent on ink flow regulation during ink jet printing. While he was involved with ink jet technology, he was an invited lecturer on ink-substrate interactions at IS&T international conferences. Dr. Agbezuge obtained his Sc.D. in Solid Mechanics from Columbia University in 1972. He was a student of Dr. H. Deresiewicz, who had been a student of Dr. R. Mindlin. After leaving Xerox, he was Associate Visiting Professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology for 5 years. He taught an undergraduate course in numerical methods, and three graduate courses in finite elements and solid mechanics. He has several publications that have been cited in journals, handbooks and for biomechanics research.
Ken Altfather has a 32-year history of progressive engineering and project management responsibility. He holds a master’s degree in optics from the University of Rochester and has 9 patents in the fields of optics, mechanics, and thermal inkjet. He led the subsystem design teams for the optical scanning systems in a range of Xerox copiers and was directly responsible for Xerox’s first precision scanning optical system. He managed the technology integration, design, and development of inkjet components for a wide range of desktop inkjet printers.





Dr. Robert Fields was lead scientist at Eastman Kodak for Specialty Toner programs, developing and manufacturing toner and developers for other printer companies and the aftermarket. Approximately 12 of his products have been commercialized. Robert’s work included extensive interaction with customer to determine their required performance, specifications, joint testing, acceptance testing, and commercialization needs. Robert was responsible for toner pilot lab operations and engineering. His goals also included wide-ranging new product and process engineering development including toner surface treatment, advancing processes to make smaller narrow size distribution conventional toners, and the development of chemically prepared toners. Earlier, Robert was a Senior Engineer at Heidelberg Digital where he was responsible for Materials development and manufacturing scale-up for Heidelberg / Kodak Digimaster printer product family. This included material formulation, printer testing for EP performance and image quality, reliability testing, manufacturing scale-up. When introduced this printer set a new industry standard for superior image quality and high speed monochrome printing. Prior to his work at Heidelberg Robert held senior engineering positions at Kodak Research Labs and Kodak Ltd in the UK. Dr. Fields holds 38 US patents and graduated from Bucknell University with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and from Cornell University with a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering with minors in Polymer Science and Organic Chemistry.
John Gillen is a hands-on manager, team leader and design engineer specializing in the development of microprocessor-controlled products for a wide range of industries and applications. John is adept at delivering innovative solutions to challenging technical problems through the application of his analytical skills, extensive product knowledge base, and keen understanding of the tradeoffs between multiple engineering disciplines and manufacturability requirements. John successfully works directly with customers, coordinates outside services, and pursues technology acquisitions to meet corporate goals. Since 2008 John has worked, as a captive contractor, in support of XACTIV providing hardware, firmware and software development support for advanced precision coating and deposition systems using electrophotographic and ink jet technologies. John also developed embedded firmware for HP printers to support check printing and encryption, C# APIs for server based encryption services and key management, and C# .net tools for converting banking system data to company data formats. He also developed numerous products including an electronic controller for a 4000 dpi UV based laser plate maker, a digital ultraviolet laser diode driver, and the complete hardware, firmware and C++ API for a 8051 based Check21 check scanner with MICR reader, optical line scan camera, USB interface. Prior to his work at XACTIV he contributed as Engineering Manager, Senior Engineer, or Director of Engineer at an impressive list of technology-enabled companies including Output Technology, Thermoguard, American Sign and Indicator, Source Technologies, Eldec, and Bell Telephone Labs. John holds a BSEE from Washington State University and an MS Engineering from the University of California, Berkley.




Dr. C. Wayne Jaeger completed postdoctoral work at Georgia Tech University with Professor H. O. House, and then joined Crompton & Knowles Corporation for seven years as a dye research chemist synthesizing dyes for the sublimation printing of textiles and other substrates. He also did work in fluorescent whitening agents and in the preparation of dyestuff dispersions. In 1980, he moved to Tektronix in their then-fledgling development of color ink-jet printing. He developed the phase change inks (also known as solid ink) formulations and color set used in the successful line of Tektronix Phaser Color Solid Ink Jet Printers. Dr. Jaeger was honored with the Tektronix founder’s Excellence in Engineering Award in 1995. Xerox purchased the Tektronix Color Printing Division January 2000, and he retired from Xerox in 2006 as a Xerox Research Fellow. He was appointed to Fellowship in IS&T in 1996 and received the Johann Gutenberg Prize from the Society for Information Display in 1998. Dr. Jaeger has presented colorant tutorials from 1998 to 2003, as well as publishing numerous scientific papers. He holds 27 U.S. Patents.
Dr.Bruce Kahn specializes in the multidisciplinary fields of printed electronics, organic electronics, nanotechnology, smart packaging, and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). In addition to helping companies and governmental organizations, he writes books, articles and reports, and conducts training sessions and workshops. Dr. Kahn was a Professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology, where he started the Printable Electronics research program. Dr. Kahn’s research group pursued materials for the fabrication of electronic devices. His work produced (both small and production scale) and characterized antennas for Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags, and assessed the process capabilities of a number of different printing techniques used for patterning conductive features. Dr. Kahn has developed and applied technology for printing chemical sensors. Dr. Kahn is currently investigating other techniques for patterning functional organic materials, such as liquid dispensing, and has created working organic transistors using this technique. Dr. Kahn has a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Nebraska, and a S. B. in Chemistry from the University of Chicago. He is the author of over 75 publications, including several recently published books.
Joe LaBarca worked at Eastman Kodak Company for over 34 years. He graduated from Bucknell University with a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Chemical Engineering and spent a large part of his career at Kodak in the research, development, and commercialization processes for Kodak Ektacolor papers and processing chemistry. His experience includes extensive involvement in the image stability of color papers beginning in the early 1980s and continuing for the remainder of his career at Kodak. In 1997, Joe was appointed Senior Research Lab Manager, directing a laboratory with systems responsibility for professional color negative films and papers. In 2004 Joe assumed the role of Technical Director, Image Permanence with responsibilities that included silver halide, inkjet, thermal dye transfer, and electrophotographic imaging systems. In 2008, he assumed the additional responsibilities of retail imaging systems quality. Joe has been a member of IS&T for over 25 years and became a member of the American Institute for Conservation in 2008. Joseph LaBarca formed JEL Imaging Services in 2010 and Pixel Preservation International in early 2011, to provide consulting services to the imaging industry on image preservation, ISO standards, and image quality. In mid-2011 he was appointed to the position of Visiting Scholar in the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology. Joe is also a member of the ISO Technical Committee on Photography and is directly involved in the ANSI/IT-9 and ISO Working Group 5 Committees on color print stability and physical properties.


Dr. Trevor Martin has almost 25 years’ experience in the formulation, design and development of electro photographic dry toners, developers and photoconductors. Dr. Martin has formulated toners for both extrusion/mechanical and direct polymerization processes as well as encapsulated toners. He has written and presented a number of papers and given seminars in additive chemistry and holds 21 patents in inks, photoconductors, toners, and additive formulations.

Dr. Stephen Pond has worked for over 27 years in research and development specializing in inkjet printing technology and print head engineering and manufacturing. He has served as a research laboratory manager and as chief engineer for inkjet programs at Xerox. His expertise in the field of digital printers includes all forms of inkjet, thermal printing, magnetography, and laser xerography. Dr. Pond holds 43 US patents and has served as an editor and is the key contributor to the book titled, Inkjet Technology and Product Development Strategies.


Dr. William Mey has more than 26 years’ experience in electrophotography, electrography, laser thermal, and ink jet printing. This included a focus in the photophysics of photoreceptors, design and testing of corona chargers, and subsystem interactions in printer systems. In addition, he has hands-on experience with the fabrication and magnetization of multipole high-energy permanent magnets for magnetic development rollers. Dr. Mey holds 48 patents and was appointed a Distinguished Inventor by Kodak Research Scientific Council in 1992.
Dr. Don Seanor has held a number of scientific and management positions focused on elastomer development and materials engineering for the digital printer industry. He has received over 20 patents on electro-photographic materials and devices. He has published more than 30 papers and edited two books on photoconducting and electrical properties of polymers. Dr. Seanor’s extensive experience includes silicon fuser roll development, VitonÒ fuser roll development and manufacturing process development, novel photocopier & intermediate transfer belt seaming processes, rubber fuser roll manufacturing; novel photoreceptor and intermediate transfer belt seaming processes, charging and transfer devices, high volume roll fuser systems and the design and development of electrostatic brush cleaners.
David Shogren has over 35 years’ experience in the design and development of electro-photographic printing systems. He has extensive experience in the design of optical systems and mechanical drive systems. He has specific expertise in the analysis of vibration, acoustic noise reduction, gear stress, gear transmission errors and drive system efficiency for printer/copier applications. Mr. Shogren is a licensed professional engineer and holds 21 patents relating to optical systems and mechanical drive systems.
Richard E. Smith has over forty years of experience in the research, conceptual development and production design of copier and printer products and related systems. During his thirty-six year career at Xerox he held various positions in the areas of research, engineering and manufacturing. Mr. Smith is the holder of fifty U.S. Patents in the areas of paper handling (27), marking process elements (20) and automotive engine related devices (3). His areas of expertise include systems architecture development, marking process development and integration as well as paper handling and paper feeding systems development. He was a principal contributor and developer of the first fully automatic re-circulating document feeder technology that is currently used on Xerox high speed multi-function printers today.

