In the years following the invention of the laser, the quality of laser crystals became a limiting factor to the growth of the laser industry. In 1989, after more than three decades in the laser materials industry, Ralph Hutcheson founded a company in Bozeman Montana near the campus of Montana State University dedicated to the development and growth of the world’s highest quality single-crystal laser materials. He succeeded, and the company he founded, Scientific Materials, was acquired by FLIR Systems in 2005.