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Qualia Oto welcomes Dr. Benjamin Lund, veteran chemist, researcher, entrepreneur, and business leader, as its new Chief Technology Officer.
October 22, 2024 – Qualia Oto has announced the hiring of Benjamin Lund, PhD as Chief Technology Officer to drive integration of its novel shape-memory polymers into commercial cochlear implants and manage the company’s deep technology portfolio. Lund is an avid researcher and inventor who earned top honors as Tech Titans Inventor of the Year across DFW in 2023. Lund is lead inventor on several important patent families (now protected all over the world) that originated from UT Dallas and helped establish the value of the 2021 acquisition of Adaptive3D by Desktop Metal (NYSE: DM) for $65M.
“I have known Dr. Lund for over a decade, and I am confident in his ability to lead our technical team,” said Connie Manz, Qualia Oto’s CEO. “Benjamin’s publication record and patent proficiency, along with his expertise in thiol-mediated interface chemistry, polymer network architecture, biocompatibility, and materials aging, will accelerate Qualia Oto’s current phase of commercialization; this will be crucial in bringing our well-studied shape changing polymers to market in the cochlear implant space. Moreover, Benjamin has the skillset to ensure our products meet the demanding technical specifications necessary for Qualia Oto to provide global cochlear implant users with higher channel count CI electrodes than any current market options.”
Qualia Oto President Walter Voit, PhD, is thrilled to be reunited with Lund at Qualia Oto. “I had a front-row seat to witness Benjamin’s polymer design brilliance and translation into a sturdy intellectual property strategy over the past decade, first in academia and then in the startup space and in a public company. His deep understanding of IP strategy, not just a specific patent or idea, coupled with long-standing relationships with technical patent attorneys at Finnegan will help strengthen and broaden our portfolio at Qualia Oto over the next few years.”
Lund earned his PhD from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2010. As a young professional, he co-led a node in the National Science Foundation (NSF) Center for Energy Harvesting Materials and Systems as he built his discovery-to-invention engine as a research scientist at UT Dallas. Lund led a Phase II NSF Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant that helped then-startup Adaptive3D fully emerge from the university and set the stage for its Series A Venture Capital round, led by Applied Materials (Santa Clara, CA) and the Royal DSM (Geleen, Netherlands), and its Series B round, co-led by Arkema (Colombes, France) and West Pharmaceutical Services (Exton, PA). After Adaptive3D was acquired by DM, Lund was promoted to Director of Applied Polymer Research and helped steward his materials inventions into commercial products including two biocompatible photopolymer resins for 3D printing, Elastic ToughRubber™ and FreeFoam™.
Qualia Oto’s inaugural CTO, Stuart Cogan, PhD, is retiring after forty years in corporate and academic life, having pioneered characterization techniques in electrochemical analysis for neuromodulation. Cogan will remain actively involved with Qualia Oto as a technical advisor and a trusted technical mind across the world in bioelectronics.
“Stuart has been an extremely valuable member of the Qualia Oto team during our first critical stage of growth,” said Qualia Oto Chief Medica Officer Kenneth Lee, MD. “We will miss his talent and experience but are fortunate that he will remain as an advisor and a friend of the company. That said, I am excited about the skillsets and perspectives Benjamin will bring to the company.”
Lund, too, is excited: “I am thrilled to take the reins from Stuart as Qualia Oto continues pushing the boundaries of what is possible in the auditory space. I have a great passion for utilizing new materials to solve long-standing applied problems, and I look forward to shepherding Qualia Oto’s strategy for in-ear electrochemical excellence in the realm of our softening polymer substrates and their chronic interactions with perilymph inside the cochlea.”
Lund also noted that “Qualia Oto's approach of utilizing the shape memory polymers as cochlear implant components enables a true step forward in the development toward personalized healthcare. I am eager to see what we can continue to do with this technology, and I am excited to be part of a team driving advanced care to those in our hearing-impaired communities.”
Managing the Qualia Oto research and development enterprise gives Lund the opportunity to work closely with the company’s research team. Senior Research Engineer Dr. Jimin Maeng is very supportive of Lund’s role: “I heartily welcome Benjamin to join us as our new CTO. I believe his deep knowledge of chemistry and polymers, his extensive experience in translating technology at a startup, and the strong leadership he has shown will be tremendous assets to our team and help lead our company to products that serve our customers well.”
Lund began working with Qualia Oto on its Technical Advisory Board earlier this year, and he took on this new role as CTO at the beginning of October.
About Qualia Oto
Qualia Oto is an innovative biomedical device company focused on improving the individual’s quality of life through better aural technologies. By integrating our proprietary shape-adaptive polymers, we are advancing the next generation of cochlear implants allowing for minimal trauma, a superior positioning of electrodes, and an increased effectiveness and stimulatory resolution for chronic, targeted microstimulation. Qualia Oto’s team of medical and scientific experts aim to reshape cochlear implants and their capacity in overcoming debilitating hearing loss.
For additional information, please contact:
Benedict Voit, Chief Operating Officer
benedict.voit@qualiaoto.com
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