Bruce Rubinger, Ph.D.Managing Director

Dr. Rubinger is the Managing Director and founder of Global Prior Art. He created Global’s comprehensive worldwide search process, which is known for its broad international coverage and manual review of critical sources. Drawing on the experience of hundreds of cases, a wide range of channels have been identified which are used to disseminate Japanese, European and U.S. technical, product and patent information. In general, only 20% of this information is uncovered by a typical database search. Dr. Rubinger has institutionalized the search process, creating an expert system which identifies the most relevant sources in many fields. As Global’s senior search strategist, he has aggressively pursued such untraditional prior art sources as product literature, and technical literature from France, Israel, and even Russia on behalf of diverse clients.

Dr. Rubinger is the author of numerous reports on technology management and technology trends including Applied Artificial Intelligence In Japan: Current Status, Key R&D Performers, Strategic Focus 1988, published by Hemisphere Publishing Corporation and Factory Automation In Japan: Key Trends and Innovations 1988, published by the U.S. Department of Commerce. His articles include “Technology Policy in Japanese Firms: Decision-Making, Supplier Links and Technical Goals”, which appeared in Technology in the Modern Corporation: A Strategic Perspective, Pergamon Press 1986. He has developed case study materials for the Harvard Business School’s course on the management of innovation.

Brendan SeverAssistant Managing Director

Brendan has led and worked on projects representing a wide array of technologies, such as microprocessor design, semiconductor manufacturing, semiconductor fabrication tools, cryptographic hardware, low-power electronics, consumer electronics, touchscreens, LCD displays, LED applications and driver circuits, power supply circuits, wireless transceiver circuits, hard drive technologies, data storage systems, digital interfaces, computer buses, memory design, flash memory, and mixed signal ICs, among others. Mr. Sever holds a Master’s Degree in Computer Systems Engineering from Boston University in addition to a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from UC Santa Barbara. He has worked for Lockheed Martin and Northrup Grumman in California as an embedded systems engineer, for Sonos as a systems support engineer to Europe, and for BINA in Switzerland as an electrical engineer in the food factory designing automation systems and troubleshooting electrical systems. In addition to his work in industry, his research and lab work in academia focused on semiconductor fabrication, VLSI design for digital signal processors, and parallel computing architectures.
Drew Lowery, Ph.D.Director of Life Sciences

Dr. Lowery has led and worked on projects representing a wide array of technologies, such as single molecule nucleic acid amplification and sequencing, pharmaceutical formulation and dosing, satiety hormones, microfludics integrated systems, and biofuel production, among others. He directs all biological sequence searching efforts and specializes in cost efficient strategies for complicated cases. Dr. Lowery launched the Accelerated Examination Support practice, where his searches have been favorable reviewed by the USPTO, leading to patent granting for his clients. Dr. Lowery holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he studied cancer signaling networks.
Cassie Daddario, Ph.D.Group Leader Chemistry & Materials

Dr. Daddario has directed numerous FTO, acquisition due diligence, prior art, and IP landscape analysis projects for clients in the Pharmaceutical, Chemical, and Materials spaces. Her expertise spans polymer science, formulations, and she is a leading expert in small molecule structure searches. Her Ph.D. research at Case Western Reserve University focused on the synthesis of organic small molecules for use as non-fullerene electron acceptors in organic thin-film solar cells. While during her undergraduate work her research explored altering thin-film morphology in organic solar cells via end-modification of poly(3-hexylthiophene).

Olga Sapozhnikov
Olga SapozhnikovGroup Leader Telecommunications & Networking

Olga has led and worked on projects representing a wide array of technologies, such as encryption, packet processing, VLANs, MPEG, JPEG, turbo and other coding methods, wireless networks, 3GPP and CDMA, among others. Ms. Sapozhnikov holds a Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Belarusian University of Informatics and Radioelectronics. Her graduate coursework emphasized the areas of data communication, coding, and network security. During her graduate training, she was involved in development of receiver/transmitter devices for high-speed computer networks.
Benedikt Biechele
Benedikt BiecheleGroup Leader Electronics & Semiconductors

Benedikt Biechele joined GPA in 2010 and specializes in the fields of semiconductor fabrication,
electronics manufacturing, MEMS devices, assembly and packaging of ICs, electronics reliability
testing, sensors and actuators, optical inspection, and instrumentation. He has worked on projects
in the fields of nanosytems, on-chip interconnects, and device packaging.

Mr. Biechele has broad experience reviewing European literature as well as German, EPO, PCT,
and British patents for high stakes cases. He has searched using the German DPMA patent database
and reviewed technical publications at the libraries of Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Boston University and University of Freiburg in Germany. His manual search efforts are
augmented by his experience with many electronic databases including INSPEC, IEEE, and
Compendex as well as his familiarity with the publications of various technical groups such as the
IEEE, MRS, SPIE, and ACM organizations. He is also fluent in the German language and often
reviews technical literature and patents in German.

Mr. Biechele holds a Diplom-Ingenieur (Master’s equivalent) degree in Microsystems Engineering
from Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg (IMTEK), Germany, with an emphasis on Optical
Engineering. Microsystems Engineering is a multidisciplinary area of expertise where
microoptical, micromechanical, microfluidic, and microelectronic components are combined in a
system to realize sensors and actuators of a miniaturized form. During his studies he was engaged
in a variety of topics ranging from optics, digital and analog circuit design, surface analysis, and
material sciences to the manufacture of a gas flow sensor in the cleanroom. He wrote his Diploma
Thesis at the University of Texas at Austin where he studied direct write conductors realized by a
laser ablation process of a microparticle aerosol.

Craig Jimenez
Craig JimenezGroup Leader Mechanical Engineering & Manufacturing Group

Craig has led and worked on projects representing a wide array of technologies, such as engine & automotive technology, food processing systems, alternative energy, oil/gas drilling systems, among others. Mr. Jimenez holds a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During his career at MIT, he was involved in several projects ranging from the design of consumer products to engineering education software development. In addition to his background at MIT, Mr. Jimenez has relevant work experience in the engineering department at Cessna Aircraft and the manufacturing operations department at Raytheon Aircraft.
Lydia Bakalova
Lydia BakalovaGroup Leader Medical Devices

Ms. Bakalova is the Medical Device Group Leader at Global supporting projects such as orthopaedic implants, surgical robotics, minimally‐ invasive surgical instrumentation, diabetes care, and cardiovascular technologies. Ms. Bakalova holds a dual Bachelor’s Degree in Biomedical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering (minor in Materials Science) from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign with a focus in Biomechanics.

Ranganath Udupa
Ranganath UdupaGroup Leader Software and E-Commerce

Ranganath brings leadership and deep domain expertise across full-stack and low-level software architectures, with extensive search experience in compilers, object-oriented systems,  operating system internals, virtualization, and large-scale distributed computing. His technical portfolio spans advanced internet security, electronic payment protocols, speech recognition engines, network gaming platforms, and multimedia information retrieval, distributed systems, and systems security. This deep technical foundation is paired with extensive experience conducting high-stakes prior art research, patentability analysis, and technical evaluations across the US and various patent jurisdictions all around the world.
Mr. Udupa holds a Master’s Degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from McGill University, Montreal, where his advanced research focused on security paradigms and threat mitigation within large-scale distributed systems.

Engineering

Benedikt Biechele – Group Leader

Additional Expertise:

Milan Daphtary
M.S. in Electrical Engineering, Tufts University
Expertise in multiprocessor design, low-power processing techniques, embedded systems design

Sai Gudibandi
M.S. in Computer Engineering, Texas A&M University
Expertise in digital systems design, computer architecture, sensor systems, medical electronics, mixed-signal circuit design

Jason Hannon, Ph.D.
Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, University of Cork in Ireland
Expertise in power electronics, integrated power supplies, VLSI, analog circuit design

Venkata Ramana Krovi
M.S. in Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California
Expertise in computer interfaces, mixed-signal circuits, A/D converters, Consumer Electronics

Yulim Lee
M.S. in Industrial Engineering, North Carolina State University
B.S. in Electronics Engineering, Pusan National University (South Korea)

Haozhi Dong
M.S. in Solid State & Nanotechnology, University of Michigan
Expertise in semiconductor devices, thin films, fabrication processes, IC packaging, optics and photonics, metrology
Expertise in DRAM, flash memory, controllers, digital circuits, Consumer Electronics

Craig Jimenez – Group Leader

Additional Expertise:

Yuanyuan Bi
M.Eng. in Mechanical Engineering, Boston University
Expertise in vehicle engineering, construction machinery, image processing, and solar energy

Avik Kathuria
M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin
Expertise in product design, additive manufacturing, and energy technologies

Group Leaders:

Ranganath Udupa
M.Eng. in Electrical & Computer Engineering, McGill University
Expertise in computer security, distributed systems, and operating systems

Alexander Kaufman
B.S. in Software Engineering, McGill University
Expertise in intrusion detection, stored-value systems, online content delivery, and user collaborations systems

Additional Expertise:

Wes Acosta
S.B., Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Expertise in electronic commerce, purchasing systems, and remote systems

Akshatha Anand
M.S. in Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Expertise in operating systems, cryptography, object-oriented programming, and data analytics

William Sniegowski
B.S. in Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Expertise in user interfaces, knowledge discovery systems, and data extraction/parsing

Rusali Saha
M.S. in Computer Science, Texas A&M University
Expertise in AI systems, large language models (LLM) and information retrieval, natural nanguage processing, and quality control

Olga Sapozhnikov – Group Leader

Additional Expertise:

Biljana Bozhinovska
M.S. In Digital Communications, Aalborg University, Denmark
Expertise in digital signal processing, coding, wireless communication, WLAN, 802.11

Marjan Bozinovski, Ph.D.
Ph.D. in Wireless Communications, Aalborg University, Denmark
Expertise in 3GPP, CDMA, and IP -based communication technologies

Felipe Castillo
M.S. in Telecommunications, McGill University
Expertise in data communications, GSM, CDMA, speech processing and recognition

Valentin Rakovic, Ph.D.
Ph.D. in Wireless Communications, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University
Expertise in wireless networks, video coding, security and privacy in ICT

Katerina Smiljkovikj
M.S. in Wireless & Mobile Communications Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, Macedonia
Expertise in heterogeneous cellular networks, information theory, cooperative communication, data communication

Sai Sukumaran
M.S. in Telecommunications, University of Maryland
Expertise in mobile communications, MIMO, distributed networking

Life Sciences

Drew Lowery, Ph.D. – Director of Life Sciences

Group Leader:

David Adamovich, Ph.D.
Ph.D. in Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Harvard University
Expertise in microbiology, genomics, therapeutic formulations

Additional Expertise:

Vadim Demidov, Ph.D.
Ph.D. in Biophysics, Institute of Molecular Genetics of USSR Academy of Sciences
Expertise in PCR & sequencing methodologies, microfluidics

Lev Moiseev, Ph.D.
Ph.D. in Molecular, Cellular Biology and Biochemistry, Boston University
Expertise in gene therapy and microscopy

Sam Nassar, B.A.
Bachelors in Biology, Brandeis University
Expertise in cancer immunology and metabolomics

Lorenzo Ospri, Ph.D.
Ph.D. in Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Expertise in neuroscience and vaccines

Richard Row, Ph.D.
Ph.D. in Biochemistry, University of Washington
Expertise in genetic modification and cell-cell signaling

Sindhu Vijayakrishnan, M.S.
Masters in Biotechnology, Johns Hopkins University
Expertise in biotechnology and patent prosecution

Gabriel Zhang, B.A.
Bachelors in Biology, Northwestern University
Expertise in molecular cell biology and physiology

Shannon Moreno, Ph.D.
Ph.D. in Molecular Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Expertise in microbiology, genomics, therapeutic formulations
Expertise in molecular cell biology, genetic engineering, microfluidics, and advanced microscopy

Cassie Daddario, Ph.D. – Group Leader

Additional Expertise:

Bing Fu, M. Eng.
M. Eng. In Material Science & Engineering, Boston University
Expertise in nanomaterials, polymer chemistry and spectroscopy

Zhehui Li, Ph.D.
Ph.D. in Chemistry, Boston College
Expertise in catalysis and polymer chemistry

Sunny Yau, Ph.D.
Ph.D. in Chemistry, University of Michigan
Expertise in nanotechnology, advanced materials, and spectroscopy

Lydia Bakalova, M.S. – Group Leader

Steven Miller, M.D., J.D. – Senior Advisor

Additional Expertise:

Marina Christakos, B.S.
B.S. in Biomedical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering (dual major), Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Expertise in biomechanical adjuncts, endovascular grafts and stents, catheter-based endovascular interventions, and tissue stimulator devices

Tanner Knabe, M.Eng.
B.S. and M.Eng. in Biomedical Engineering, Boston University
Expertise in surgical robotics, medical image processing and orthopedic implants

Meredith Shin, M.S.
B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Binghampton University; M.S. in Biomedical Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Expertise in autoinjectors, dental devices and minimally invasive surgical instruments

Michael Shin, Ph.D.
Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Expertise in orthopaedic surgery, cardiovascular surgery, interventional cardiology, biomaterials

Drew Lowery, Ph.D. – Director of Life Sciences

Group Leader:

Cassie Daddario, Ph.D.