Your partner for innovation and tool development in microscopy
Software framework technology and ultra-fast application development
Customized (private label) system integration and application development for OEM partners
Founding Partners
The AppFive team has a strong engineering and scientific background, with an emphasis on software development. Combined with disciplined, professional software development abilities, our strong domain knowledge in electron microscopy, spectroscopy, image acquisition, image processing and data management makes us ideally suited to become your partner in developing solutions for the (electron) microscopy market.
Bruno Janssens, Business Development
Bruno got his masters degree in Material Science Engineering from the University of Gent (Belgium) in 1991. From 1992 through 1995, he worked as Junior Expert at the engineering school of the Autonomous National University of Mexico (UNAM) in the UDIATEM, a materials characterizations and failure analysis lab.
It was in 1995 that Bruno joined Philips Electron Optics as a field application specialist in Latin America. Very quickly Bruno was asked to move to North America were he, based out of Tempe Arizona, served first as field product manager SEM and later became southwest territory account manager. It was in this period that the paths of the AppFive co-founders crossed for the first time. Bruno accepted in 1999, two years after Philips Electron Optics had merged with FEI Company, the challenge to become VP of Sales and Service Europe and relocated back to Europe. From 2000 through 2007 he held several senior management positions at FEI and decide to end his 13 year carreer at FEI Company as VP–General Manager of the NanoResearch and Industry Market Division. In 2008 Bruno created Aquos–International ID Consultancy — and decided to become a founding partner of AppFive.
J.K. Weiss
J. K. got his Ph.D. in Physics from Arizona State University in 1989, working on detection limits of nanoanalysis of composite materials. He then worked in the National Center for High Resolution Electron Microscopy at ASU, where his research involved high spatial resolution microanalysis, electron holography and computer-controlled data acquisition.
After leaving ASU in 1992, J. K. founded Emispec Systems in order to build the first commercial software and systems for doing integrated TEM data acquisition. He had many titles at Emispec, from Bookkeeper, Service Technician and Janitor to Lead Developer, Technical Director and President. Under his direction, Emispec became a leading supplier of computer systems and software in the TEM market and grew to more than 15 employees.
After FEI Company acquired Emispec in 2003, J. K. stayed on with FEI and served as Director of Engineering and team leader of the TEM software group. After leaving FEI in 2006, he was one of the founders of Enoetic, LLC, where he served as the lead software developer and software architect.
Steve Kim
After working in the area of analytical electron microscopy of ceramic-composite materials, Steve received his Ph. D. in Materials Science from Northwestern University in 1999. He joined Emispec with Doug and J. K. soon afterwards as an Applications Specialist, which gave him a wide exposure to electron microscopy end-users in both industry and academia. The need to help customers get their work done with their Emispec ES Vision systems meant a lot of time was spent both in-field and on the phone, but it also drove him to develop software tools to assist customers. It wasn’t long before Steve was spending considerable time developing advanced experiments, data analysis and workflow management tools for the ES Vision customers.
By the time Emispec was purchased by FEI, Steve had moved to software development full-time, focusing on automation of the electron microscope and its associated detector systems, algorithmic development and application prototyping.
Even though Steve left FEI a full year before Doug and J. K., he was onboard as a co-founder of Enoetic from day one. At Enoetic, he was responsible for image processing algorithmic development, software implementation, usability testing and research into data analysis techniques.
Doug Cosart
Doug got his B. S. in Electrical Engineering from Montana State University in 1984 after which he was a digital design engineer with Goodyear Aerospace in Arizona. After advancing for 10 years in the company, and shifting to software development, Doug left Goodyear Aerospace (then called Loral Defense Systems) to join his former college roommate J. K. Weiss as a co-founder of Emispec Systems.
Doug’s early responsibilities at Emispec included software programming for hardware control, electronic design, system design and build and customer support. He later was responsible for project management and operations, which he continued after Emispec was acquired by FEI Company. He joined J. K. Weiss and Steve Kim to found Enoetic in 2006, where his responsibilities included project management and user interface programming.