As an industry leader, Applied Materials is constantly innovating. Whether it’s breakthroughs in materials engineering or pioneering new ways of working with our customers and partners, being able to innovate quickly and with a high success rate is paramount to our continued leadership and growth.

One of the most challenging aspects of innovation is taking an idea from the concept stage and turning it into a commercially successful product or business. At Applied, we are fortunate to have a deep bench of leaders who have proven track records in bringing breakthroughs in materials engineering to market. A great example of one such leader is Dr. Omkaram (Om) Nalamasu, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer.

Dr. Nalamasu was recently recognized by the Innovation Research Interchange (IRI), the National Association of Manufacturers’ innovation management division, with the 2024 IRI Innovation Leadership Award. IRI is a community of industry leaders dedicated to accelerating innovation and top-line growth, and the IRI Innovation Leadership Award celebrates visionary leaders whose exceptional contributions and transformative influence have significantly advanced the landscape of innovation. 

Dr. Nalamasu is a world-renowned expert in materials science and has made seminal contributions to the fields of optical lithography and polymeric materials science and technology. He has a distinguished career of leadership in advancing materials engineering technologies and solutions for semiconductors and displays, including development of novel patterning equipment and processes to manufacture OLED displays. He has also helped enable global inflections in new and adjacent markets to the wafer fab equipment industry in fields including energy storage, photonics and life sciences. 

As a champion for open innovation and a pioneer in value-added partnerships, Dr. Nalamasu has built a world-class team to extend Applied’s leadership in materials engineering. The strategic relationships he’s cultivated over the years with global academia, research institutes, customers, supply chain partners and government agencies have led to the creation of: the Materials Engineering Technology Accelerator (META) Center in New York, the Computational Center for Nanotechnology Innovations (CCNI) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), and the New Jersey Nanotechnology Consortium (NJNC) at Bell Labs, one of the nation’s first nanotech public-private partnerships.

Dr. Nalamasu also serves as President of Applied Ventures, LLC, the venture capital fund of Applied Materials. Under his leadership, Applied Ventures has become a leading global corporate venture capital fund in deep tech, with strategic investments in areas including semiconductors, display, AI, Big Data, Industry 4.0, energy efficiency, 5G, electric vehicles and life sciences. Dr. Nalamasu also pioneered joint investment funds with Applied Ventures and government organizations in the State of New York, Korea and Taiwan.

Dr. Nalamasu has received numerous national and global awards, authored more than 180 papers, review articles and books, and holds more than 120 worldwide issued patents. He was the recipient of the 2023 IEEE Frederik Philips Award, which honors outstanding accomplishments in the management of research and development resulting in effective innovation in the electrical and electronics industry. Dr. Nalamasu received the award for leadership in research and development of semiconductor materials, processes and equipment. In 2017, Dr. Nalamasu was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering for technical innovation spanning materials development, atomically controlled thin-film fabrication, and commercialization in microelectronics and energy generation and storage.

He is an IEEE Fellow, a member of the board of directors of The Tech Interactive in Silicon Valley and serves on several notable advisory boards. He received his Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.