Mary Lou Jepsen

Dr. Mary Lou Jepsen holds nearly 300 patents. Founded four companies. And led hardware at Facebook, Google, Intel, and Oculus.

Let’s rewind.

In 1995, Jepsen co-founded MicroDisplay, where she pioneered components that would later power VR, AR, HDTVs, and smartphones.

She led the full stack: from ASICs and optics to manufacturing strategy.

Next came a senior technical role at Philips, where she contributed to early LED breakthroughs now found in billions of devices.

In 2004, she joined Intel, becoming CTO of the Display Division, where she architected the company's next-gen HDTV efforts.

But her name became globally recognized in 2005, when she co-founded One Laptop per Child (OLPC).

A global movement to bring ultra-affordable computers to children in low- and middle-income countries.

The result: a ripple effect that led Google’s CEO to later call the Chromebook “the grandchild of OLPC.”

Then, Jepsen spun out the OLPC display tech into a new company: Pixel Qi.

A fabless display firm focused on low-power, sunlight-readable screens for mobile devices.

While typical tablet screens ate up 90% of a device’s power, Pixel Qi’s designs slashed consumption by 10x.

Her next move took her into the heart of Silicon Valley innovation: Google X.

There, she reported directly to Sergey Brin.

She led programs across Google’s consumer electronics and display hardware divisions, including Google Glass.

By 2015, she had joined Facebook/Oculus as Executive Director of Engineering.

She spearheaded the move from OLED to liquid crystal systems in Oculus Quest 2.

Invented foveated AR vision with a 180° field of view.

And built Facebook’s first brain-computer interface team.

But, in 2016, she decided to start over.

She founded Openwater, a medical tech startup whose mission is to replace the functionality of MRI machines with wearable, low-cost electronics... and use them to treat disease, not just diagnose it.

Her devices use infrared holography and low-intensity focused ultrasound.

And in preclinical and clinical testing, Openwater’s tech achieved near 50% remission rates in patients with severe depression, through ultrasound harmonics that calmed overfiring neurons.

All 68 of Openwater’s patents? Free to use.

All hardware schematics? Creative Commons Share-Alike 4.0.

All software? AGPL open source.

In 2024, she raised $54M to scale Openwater’s technology platform into a fully open medical system that could slash the cost of diagnostics and care around the world.

Mary Lou has won every award in sight: TIME 100 most influential people, CNN Top 10 Thinkers, Forbes Top 50 Women in Tech, and more.

She’s not in the business of moonshots.

She’s in the business of moon landings.