Elias Towe is founder and CTO of Orenko LTD, a solar energy company. He has previously worked as Program Manager for photonics at the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and has been a consultant to governments, industry, and other organizations, including the World Bank. He is the author or coauthor of over 170 technical journal papers and a book chapter. He was educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he received the S.B., S.M., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Towe is a Fellow of several professional societies.