Management & Lead Advisors

Dr. Navid Yazdi
Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Navid Yazdi, has spent the last two decades developing wireless sensing and identification systems, silicon integrated circuit (IC) and sensor products and systems. Prior to founding Evigia, Dr. Yazdi was responsible for developing ultra-precise circuits to control the MEMS devices in all IntelliSense (a subsidiary of Corning Incorporated; NYSE: GLW) telecommunications products. Navid’s expertise in silicon IC and sensors extends back to his work as a faculty member at Arizona State University and a researcher at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He has earned numerous accolades from peers, including more than four dozen publications in the fields of wireless microsystems, silicon IC and MEMS. He holds 15 U.S. patents and earned a PhD in electrical engineering from University of Michigan.

Advisors

Dr. Khalil Najafi

For more than 20 years, Khalil Najafi’s research interests have focused on various aspects of micro-electro-mechanical systems, or MEMS, technologies. He has successfully designed and fabricated numerous types of environmental sensors and actuators, and he has particular interest in analog IC design and its implications for low-power wireless sensing systems.

Dr. Najafi presently chairs the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at University of Michigan, and holds the Schlumberger Chaired Professorship in Electrical Engineering and Arthur F. Thurnau Professorship at the University of Michigan. He served as director of the Solid-State Electronics Laboratory from 1998 to 2005 and currently directs the National Science Foundation (NSF) National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN) at the University. He also served as deputy director of the NSF Engineering Research Center for Wireless Integrated MicroSystems from 2000 to 2009. Dr. Najafi has organized and chaired several international MEMS and integrated sensors conferences and edited several peer-reviewed journals, including IEEE Solid-State Circuits Journal and IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices. He is a fellow of the IEEE and earned his PhD from the University of Michigan.

Dr. Kensall Wise

Kensall Wise has played a leading role in both academic research and the development of integrated micro sensors and systems for environmental and process monitoring for over 40 years. He has chaired numerous IEEE conferences and technical subcommittees and served as editor for many highly regarded technical journals and peer-reviewed publications in MEMS and integrated circuits.

Dr. Wise presently holds the William Gould Dow Distinguished University Professorship in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and the J. Reid and Polly Anderson Professorship in Manufacturing Technology. He also directs the National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering Research Center for Wireless Integrated MicroSystems and the Robert H. Lurie Nanofabrication Facility at the University of Michigan. Dr. Wise is a fellow of the IEEE and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He earned his PhD from Stanford University.