Forty Under 40: Alex Lostetter

A real Renaissance man, Alex Lostetter is the author of the young adult science fiction novel, “Yesterday’s Shadow,” an avid painter, hiker, traveler and water skier.nThe president of Arkansas Power Electronics Inc., Lostetter has also been published two dozen times in trade journal and scientific publications, and he is authoring a chapter on advanced microelectronics “packaging” for a graduate-level text book that will be published in 2005.nThe Fredricksburg, Va., native earned his master’s degree in electrical engineering in 1998 at Virginia Tech University. There he helped evaluate electronics used in space travel at Lockheed Martin.nIn 1999, Lostetter returned to academia at VTU to pursue his doctorate under Aicha Elshabini, the electrical engineering department head. When she moved to the University of Arkansas, Lostetter followed and in 2003 completed his Ph.D. in microelectronics at the UA.nLostetter started part time at APEI in 1999, and by 2002 was promoted to chief operations officer. In 2003, he became president and is now its majority owner. This year, Lostetter started a $4,000 annual graduate fellowship at the UA while helping his own company bring in $2.5 million in federal funding. n