Engadet.com reports that the company specialized in contactless EV charging, WiTricity, has acquired their rival Qualcomm’s wireless charging tech. Why would that be a piece of news appearing on the web-site covering Croatia in English language? Because of the founder of WiTricity, Croatian physicist turned innovator turned enterpreneur – Marin Soljačić.
Born in Zagreb in 1974, after graduating from one of the most prestigious high-schools in Zagreb, the 15 Gimnazija (specializing in mathematics and natural sciences), Soljačić moved to the US, where he got the double undergraduate degree at the MIT (in physics and in electrical engineering). After that, he moved to yet another lesser-known East Coast school (just kidding!) to get his PhD at Princeton. After that, he started his tenured career back at his alma mater, MIT, where he is currently the professor of physics. His area of interest is the condensed matter theory, nonlinear optical physics and most relevant to this story, the physics and the feasibility of wireless power transfer.
After the research of the wireless power transfer performed by the scientists in his lab in 2006 at MIT, Soljačić started a spinout company called WiTricity, which holds patents for the magnetic resonance technology and power transfer which would allow for the wireless charging of numerous devices, including automobiles. The company is collaborating with leading carmakers to drive global standards for wireless charging systems, built using WiTricity’s intellectual property, and has in the past received investments by Toyota and others. In the past, it seemed that their technology had only one relevant competitor, Qualcomm’s “Halo” tech, which included numerous important patents. So, the news that WiTricity has acquired their biggest rival means that they now hold all major patents in the field, and will be able to work independently on getting the industry to adopt the technology and bring it into the mainstream as soon as possible.
In 2015, he founded the Marin Soljačić Award, where 5000 USD is given to the high-school student in Croatia who achieves the highest score at the final high school exam (“državna matura”), and he usually attends the ceremony personally.
