René Koper founded SPL in 1996 when working at the FOM Institute in Amsterdam. He is a fine-mechanical engineer who has worked for various research groups in surface science prior to starting his business. He currently refines our crystal growth setups and still polishes many a crystal. Raoul van Gastel joined SPL in 2013 as a scientist after tenures at the University of Leiden, Sandia National Labs and the University of Twente. He runs the daily operation of the business and grows SPL's crystals.