Avian Technologies

Since our founding in 1999, Avian Technologies has been active in the development of standards for the pharmaceutical, agricultural, and optical industries. We also provide reflectance materials and coatings that are used throughout the world in a wide variety of industries, and are one of few companies engaged in active research in this area. In addition, we are involved in markets for instrumentation for the measurement of light. Our commitment is to prompt and intelligent service, with new ideas to solve old and new problems.

We are located in New London, NH, in the heart of the lakes region.

Our Staff

Dr. Art Springsteen

is the president and chief technical officer of Avian Technologies, LLC. Avian Technologies specializes in the design and manufacture of instruments and standards for optical spectometry and other optical radiation measurements. Prior to starting Avian Technologies in 1999, Dr. Springsteen was Principal Scientist and Director for Advanced Development at Labsphere, Inc. for 13 years. During his tenure at Labsphere, he developed over 30 commercial products, including the Spectralon® diffuse reflectance material product line, numerous optical coatings, fluorescent materials and accessories for measurement of reflectance, diffuse transmittance and fluorescence. He holds 9 U.S. patents and 3 European patents on materials and instrument design, won a 1990 Photonics Spectra New Product of the Year award (Optical Grade Spectralon®), and shared another in 1997 for the development of the Labsphere bispectral fluorescence colorimeter. He has published over thirty scientific papers and may often be seen in the pages of Spectroscopy Magazine's "Spectroscopy Workbench"' section. He is also co-author/editor (with Jerry Workman) of the Academic Press book "Applied Spectroscopy, A Complete Guide for Practitioners," and has edited the Proceedings of the Third and Fourth Oxford Conferences on Spectrometry. He is also a member and former Secretary for the Council for Optical Radiation Measurement, a member of the Board of Directors of the Inter Society Color Council, and a former member of the National Research Council of the U.S. He is also an active member of ASTM Committees E-12 (Color and Appearance) and E-13 (Molecular Spectroscopy), the Society for Applied Spectroscopy, and Council for Near-Infrared Spectroscopy. He holds a Ph.D. from West Virginia University in Organic Chemistry.

Dr. Kathryn R.M. Springsteen

is the CEO and CFO of Avian Technologies. Kathy joined Avian Technologies in June of 2007. She is responsible for all financial and operational details at Avian Technologies. Dr. Springsteen holds a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from West Virginia University. Previous to joining Avian Technologies, she was employed in academia for 30 years as a professor of chemistry, department chair, and Vice President/Dean of Faculty/Provost. Dr. Springsteen is a 30+ year member of the American Chemical Society and is a member of the Inter-Society Color Council. Her scientific interests are in environmental chemistry and workplace safety, color analysis, and textiles. Outside of work, she is a dedicated snowshoer, runner, kayaker, canoer, and quilter.

Doug Bevington

is a Scientific Technician. Doug joined Avian Technologies in May 2012. He holds a specialized Bachelor’s diploma in Electronics Engineering Technology from the DeVry Institute in Canada but much more importantly from our perspective, he has 18 years of hands-on employment with Perkin-Elmer where he obtained the unique skills necessary to maintain, repair and service Perkin-Elmer spectrophotometers. Combined with these specialized skills, Mr. Bevington has undergone intensive and specialized training in Japan for the maintenance and servicing the Murakami Color Research Laboratory product line.

Mike JergensMike Jergens

is the Quality Specialist and Director of Photometry and Radiometry at Avian  Technologies. Mike also handles the ScienceTech line of products.

Mike is well known in the optical metrology community, having served for 30 years at Rockwell Collins, Inc. As the primary metrologist for optical radiation measurements and standards, he was responsible for maintaining various standards for radiometry, photometry, color and appearance.

In keeping with the operating philosophy of many corporate metrology organizations, he was a jack-of-all-trades, master of a few. That included electrical, e.g. low-current DC standards; custom test equipment; and software engineering, e.g. SureCAL Metrology software and LabVIEW. He also lead various advisory committees and participating in numerous working groups with tasks ranging from analyzing quality issues, providing technical guidance for compliance to ANSI-NCSLI-Z540, to providing content for enterprise learning solutions including The Fundamentals of Light and Color Measurement published as a CBT module. He has served as a Director and as President of CORM.

Though his professional life does overlap with his personal life, he has many interests outside of metrology. Music is certainly a passion, listening, performing and writing, having played guitar (and some bass) in numerous bands over the years. He has also taught guitar in local area music stores.

True H. Ricker

is a Senior Research Associate. True has been with Avian Technologies since the summer of 2004 but his history in the field of metrology and material development dates from 1991, when he joined Art Springsteen’s research group at Labsphere, Inc. True works as Avian Technologies principle metrologist, as well as being involved in the research, development, and bringing to market new reflectance coatings and materials. In addition, he is our resident statistician and rides herd on our array of spectrophotometers.

True holds a degree in dairy science from the Thompson School of Agriculture at the University of New Hampshire, along with degrees in computer science and psychology from Franklin Pierce University. He has an eclectic variety of interests including storytelling, driving oxen, music, and politics.

Dr. David R. WybleDave Wyble

is the Director of Color Science. This work includes color measurement, product development, as well as acting as Technical Specialist for the Murakami product line, the FTS fluorescent standards, and our array of color ceramic tile products. The overall focus is on gaining penetration in the color market. Dave joined Avian Tech on a part-time basis in late 2006.

Dave and his wife Patty run Avian Rochester, LLC, an independent consulting company that teams with Avian Technologies to handle much of the non-traceable custom measurements projects. Avian Rochester maintains its own client base of color and imaging projects.

For other professional activities, Dave has twice served on the board of directors of the Inter-Society Color Council, and has also been in charge of the ISCC web pages for the last 15 years, and the newsletter the 2011-2012. He is President-elect for 2019-20, and if all goes well, will serve as President 2021-22. Besides ISCC, Dave is a member of CORM, ASTM E-12, and IS&T, and as been very involved with many technical conferences for ISCC, IS&T, CORM, and AIC. He regularly teaches color measurement tutorials at IS&T meetings, including the Color and Imaging Conference, and the Archiving Conference.

Dave splits his time between Avian Rochester consulting efforts, Avian Technologies work, and maintains ties at his former full time employer
(1997-2012) as a Color Scientist in the Munsell Color Science Laboratory at Rochester Institute of Technology. Outside of all that, he is very interested in music (primarily guitar), , dogs, and outdoor activities. With Patty, Dave performs as the acoustic duo "Doctor's Orders," mostly supporting various volunteer organizations with their folks and pop rock harmonies.