Scott Elrod

Scott Elrod is Vice President and Director of the Hardware Systems Laboratory research organization at PARC, a Xerox company. He also directs the Cleantech Innovation Program at PARC, which develops solutions for energy efficiency, clean water, renewable fuels, and more. One of the first results of this program is a novel, low-cost solar concentrator technology developed by startup venture SolFocus, Inc. that will significantly cut consumers' solar electricity costs.

A PARC Principal Scientist who holds more than 60 patents, Elrod was responsible for much of an acoustic ink-printing patent portfolio (a novel inkjet technology based on focused ultrasonics), and several inventions for PARC spinout LiveWorks, Inc. (later acquired by SMART Technologies). His other technology contributions include novel input devices for large-area displays and a ubiquitous smart office environment.

Prior to his role at PARC, Elrod directed the Environment, Safety, and Health (ESH) Division at SEMATECH, a consortium of semiconductor manufacturers, and also co-wrote a chapter on that industry’s ESH performance for the book, The Handbook of Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology. Dr. Elrod received his Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Stanford University and A.B. degree in Physics from Earlham College. While at Stanford, he built the world’s first low-temperature tunneling microscope.