Dr. Waldern brings 25 years of experience in commercialization of holographic and lithographic/nanomaterials for photonic applications. He has pioneered the development of a wide range of displays, scanners and active integrated optical components for LED and laser illumination.

An inventor of over 170 patents to date, principally in XR (Extended Reality) waveguide displays, holographic materials and manufacturing processes, Dr. Waldern joins META from DigiLens, Inc. a company he founded in 2004 and held various leadership positions, including CTO. He is the recipient of three National Business Awards, and amongst several product accolades, won SID “Best New Display” for motorcycle HUD AR glasses whilst partnering BMW. Previously, from 1999 through 2020, Dr. Waldern was Founder, Chairman, CTO, and CEO of DigiLens Telecom, which pioneered a new class of DWDM (dense wavelength division multiplexing) optical telecommunications waveguide components. From 1997 to 1999, he was Founder, CTO and CEO of Retinal Displays, which developed a novel three-element molded aspheric optical lens system for cost-effective consumer 3D VR displays. From 1990 to 1997, he was Founder CTO and CEO of Virtuality Group, which developed and launched the world’s first production VR (virtual reality) workstations. His research pioneered new ways to interact with computers which are now commonplace.