Viaspace
Viaspace is a clean energy company focused on commercializing technologies from NASA, Caltech, University of Southern California and the United States Department of Defense. The company operates in the alternative energy, renewable energy, and chemical sensing sectors. The company is associated with the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) and the California Institute of Technology through its CEO, Dr. Carl Kukkonen (the former Director of the Center for Space Microelectronics Technology (CSMT) and Manager of Supercomputing at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory). History Viaspace was founded in 1998 as a Caltech/NASA spin-off. The company began with the objective of transforming space and defense technologies that were originally developed at JPL into commercial products. In 1998, Viaspace signed a memorandum of understanding with RGC to commercialize a Quantum well infrared photodetector. This led to a joint venture partnership between the two companies called QWIP Technologies (QWIPTECH), which was incorporated in December 1998. Dr. Carl Kukkonen, CEO of Viaspace, served as initial CEO of QWIP Technologies until RGC acquired 100% of QWIPTECH in 2000. Since RGC's QWIPTECH acquisition, Viaspace has had no stake in QWIPTECH nor holds any Quantum Well Infrared Photodetector patents. In the summer of 1998, Viaspace also signed a memorandum of