Giacomo Vacca earned physics degrees from Harvard University (BA/MA) and from Stanford University (PhD). For his dissertation, with Nobel Prize winner Bob Laughlin, he developed a novel ultrafast light scattering technique. He has set up whole laboratories from scratch, started and led development programs, generated intellectual property (50 patent applications, 23 awarded to date), led diverse interdisciplinary groups, and managed IP portfolios. At Abbott Labs, Dr. Vacca invented and developed Laser Rastering, a radically innovative concept in flow cytometry that yielded the fastest cell analysis rate in the world. A Senior Member of SPIE and of the Optical Society of America and past Abbott Research Fellow, Dr. Vacca founded and runs Kinetic River, a biophotonics design and product development company focusing on flow cytometry. In 2013 he also cofounded BeamWise, a provider of optical system design automation tools.