John Busch

Vice President, Applied Materials Inc.

John Busch currently serves as Board President for Science is Elementary. He is a 35-year veteran of the vacuum equipment and thin-film technology industries, and most recently held the position of Vice President New Business Development for Applied Materials, Inc in the Display & Flexible Technologies Division. His mission was to identify, evaluate and develop exciting new business opportunities for the Display group that grow beyond the core product portfolio.

Prior to this role, Mr. Busch was VP & General Manager for the company’s large area sputter deposition solutions for display backplane (thin film transistor), color filter and touch panel applications, overseeing a broad international organization across Asia, U.S. and Europe. Prior to Applied, he served as Vice President and General Manager of the Rapid Thermal Processing (RTP) Product Group at Photon Dynamics, and director of Marketing at Intevac.

Mr. Busch launched his career in thin film technology by pioneering early work in Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) devices using sputtered thin film shape memory alloy. Mr. Busch received his mechanical engineering degree from UC Berkeley and an MBA degree from Santa Clara University, graduating with honors.

He holds multiple patents and has authored numerous technical and business papers throughout his career.