I am William Chaze. I spent the first part of my career building optical measurements that had to survive peer review, and the second part building ones that have to survive a factory. This page is the long version.
A PhD at Université de Lorraine on heat and mass transfer during the impact of a droplet on a hot wall in the film-boiling regime — a problem that can only be solved optically. That meant building the diagnostics: two-colour laser-induced fluorescence thermometry to map temperature inside a moving droplet, and infrared thermography for the surface it hits. The instrumentation became as much of the contribution as the physics.
Research at Lund University, in an environment built around laser-based diagnostics of sprays and scattering media: structured illumination, imaging inside dense media, and the general problem of measuring through something that refuses to be transparent.
Co-founder and CTO of an optical instrumentation company — the first prototype built in a garage, then investment, then a product platform for color, UV–Vis and particle measurement in industrial liquids, with the certification, production and integration work that implies. PhotonMech Solutions makes that experience available to other teams.
| 2014–2017 | PhD — Université de LorraineHeat and mass transfer during droplet impact on a hot wall: optical diagnostics and modelling. Thesis defended in 2017. |
| 2016–2019 | Peer-reviewed researchPublications on laser-induced fluorescence thermometry, fluorescence saturation, and temperature imaging inside impinging droplets. |
| 2017–2020 | Optical diagnostics research — Lund UniversityLaser diagnostics and imaging in scattering media, within a group built around structured illumination. |
| 2020 | Co-founds an optical instrumentation companySpec-Imaging AB, a Lund University spin-off. First system prototyped solo, then taken to an investment-ready proof of concept. |
| 2021–2026 | CTO — instruments into industryFrom prototype to a product platform: color, UV–Vis and particle analysis for industrial liquids, deployed and validated in real processes. |
| 2026 | PhotonMech SolutionsIndependent practice, offering the same optics-to-product capability to other companies. |
A representative sample — the full list is on ResearchGate.
The useful version of a CV is a conversation about what you are trying to measure.
Get in touch