Dr. Yaniv, as the former President of Applied Nanotech Holdings, Inc. and the Chief Executive Officer of its subsidiary, Applied Nanotech, (1996-2014), has been instrumental in guiding the company to become a pioneer in nanotechnology in a variety of fields, such as electron field emission from carbon films/carbon nanotubes for display applications, nanocomposites, inks and pastes for the printed electronics industry, thermal management materials, sensors, and large outdoor electronic displays. Outdoor displays present particular challenges, among them the competition posed by sunlight. While at ANHI, using his expertise in developing avionic displays, he founded Electronic Billboard Technology (EBT), which made "sun-visible" standard LCDs. These displays could function outdoors in direct sunlight and retain their readability, without being "washed out" by the sun's rays. The sun-visible LCD displays were among a number of unique products EBT developed in a very short time after its inception.
Dr. Zvi Yaniv was a founder of Kent Display Systems in Kent, Ohio, the "no-power" reflective LCD Company and of Optical Imaging Systems, Inc. (OIS) in Troy, Michigan. As President and CEO of OIS, he led the company during its years of development and in the initial commercialization of advanced active matrix liquid crystal displays and amorphous silicon image sensors. While at OIS, Dr. Yaniv was one of the founders of Unipac, presently AU Optronics, one of the premier display companies in the world.
Dr. Yaniv holds a B.Sc. in physics/mathematics and a M.Sc. in electro-optics with distinction from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and earned a M.Sc. and a Ph.D. in physics (liquid crystals) at Kent State University. Dr. Zvi Yaniv's 45-year career began in earnest in 1970 when he founded the Electro-Optics Department at the Ben Gurion University's Practical Engineering College in Be'er Sheva, Israel, while serving as its vice-president and a professor of electro-optics and math.
He has received awards from both universities and the Scientific Research Society. Dr. Yaniv is a member of the boards of directors of the Texas Nanotechnology Initiative, the Texas Israel Chamber of Commerce, the Nanotechnology Advancement Center and the Society for Information Display (SID). In May 1989, Dr. Yaniv was elected Fellow of the Society for Information Display for "his innovation and leadership in the development of large area high performance active matrix LCDs and scanners." He has published over 300 articles, holds more than 300 patents and has extensive contacts in the US, Europe, Israel and the Far East.
In April 2000, Dr Yaniv was inducted as a Senior Research Fellow of the IC2 Institute of the University of Texas. He is also a recipient of the Nano50 2005 Innovator Award from Nanotech Briefs. Under his leadership, Applied Nanotech, Inc. was recognized as one of the top 50 companies for its achievements in advancing the nanotechnology state of the art (Nano 50 Awards in 2005 and in 2008). Applied Nanotech was selected by R&D Magazine for the R&D100 Award for its nano-thermal materials technology in 2009 and for its copper inks technology in 2010. R&D Magazine selects for the R&D100 awards the 100 most technological significant new products each year.
Yaniv delights in finding ways to combine art with science, shown through his love of kinetic art and invention of the "Digital Windows" concept. His latest business enterprise, Advanced Technology Generator, seeks to commercialize viable technology products by guiding promising entrepreneurial inventions from the idea phase to the incubation stage.
His book, "My Life on the Mysterious Island of Nanotechnology," available on Amazon, captures the process through which he has guided his business career through treacherous waters and emerged on dry land as a successful inventor, entrepreneur and artist. He sees nanotechnology as a natural continuation of molecular science and engineering, which is symbiotically related to creativity.