Larry C. Olsen

Who is Larry C. Olsen?

Larry C. Olsen, PhD is Director of Research at City Labs, Inc, an early stage manufacturer of betavoltaic batteries for microelectronics based in Homestead, Florida. Dr. Olsen is a pioneer in the commercialization of betavoltaic technology due to his successful work in leading the development of the first commercially available betavoltaic nuclear battery at McDonnell Douglas Corporation in the 1970s.[,] Several hundred of these batteries were fabricated and a large number were used to power implanted heart pacemakers. Throughout his career, Dr. Olsen has published more than 80 articles in the fields of betavoltaics, photovoltaics, thermoelectric materials, and solid state physics. He has also earned several awards for his research, including the R&D 100 Award, presented each year by R&D Magazine to identify the 100 most significant, newly introduced research and development advances in multiple disciplines.

Dr. Olsen’s early work began as a Research Scientist with DWDL. Following this initial work, he became a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Washington State University. More recently, he served as a Staff Scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory from 2000 until his retirement in 2009. He chose to come out of retirement in order to join City Labs as Director of Research.