THE TEAM

Dr. Joseph W. Kolis

President and Founder

kolis@htcrystalsolutions.com

Joseph Kolis is a native of Rhode Island who obtained is B.S. in Chemistry from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1979 and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Northwestern University in 1984. After two years of postdoctoral training at McMaster University he began his professional career at Clemson University. He developed a long-standing research program in hydrothermal synthesis and crystal growth. This resulted in over 250 publications, 15 issued or pending patents and several hundred presentations on this work. In the mid 1990’s he began collaborating with Bob Laudise at Bell Labs on the fundamentals of hydrothermal crystal growth. He has been the recipient of significant federal and private sector funding, including grants from the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, HEL-JTO, the Navy, and the Army. He won a number of awards including an NSF Award for Special Creativity and an Alfred P Sloan Fellowship. He also served in a number of leadership roles at Clemson University including as the Executive Director of the Clemson University Research Foundation, which is responsible for all intellectual property management, technology transfer, licensing and incubator management for Clemson.

Dr. Colin McMillen

Founder

mcmillen@htcrystalsolutions.com

Dr. Colin McMillen brings 20 years of experience in crystal growth and X-ray crystallography to the HT CrystalSolutions team. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Clemson University in 2002, and subsequently earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Clemson University in 2007, studying inorganic chemistry with Prof. Joe Kolis. Colin’s work in hydrothermal crystal growth has spanned a range of deep-UV NLO materials, oxide laser hosts, and multifunctional single crystals. This work resulted in over 180 publications and eleven patents to date. He was the recipient of the 2013 Young Author Award presented by the American Association for Crystal growth for accomplishments in bulk and epitaxial crystal growth. Colin also serves as the staff crystallographer and Director of the Molecular Structure Center in the Department of Chemistry at Clemson. 

Dr. Rylan Terry

Principal Research Scientist

terry@htcrystalsolutions.com

Dr. Rylan Terry has 12 years of experience with hydrothermal crystal growth in the development of nonlinear optical materials. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Clemson University in 2018 following a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2011. Following the completion of his degree, Rylan continued to work as Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at Clemson University. His work with hydrothermal crystal growth focused on the development of nonlinear optical materials, laser gain media, and multifunctional materials with Professor Joe Kolis. Rylan’s expertise also extends to the polishing of optical materials. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, the Navy, and the Army. He has authored 7 publications, one patent application, and several public presentations.