October 20th 2026
Project Manager Anders Lundberg talks about setting up PHIX’s U.S. facility and building a home from a hundred-year-old mail-order house.
Anders Lundberg went rafting on the river this weekend, the kind of easy pastime that comes with living about an hour north of Yellowstone National Park. It’s the sort of afternoon that has become routine for Anders since he moved from Minnesota to Montana eighteen years ago – first for a degree in mechanical engineering, then for a career that wound its way through medical technology, cryogenics and aerospace interior design before landing on photonics.
“I have a very broad background, and the range of industries photonics touches is just as broad, if not broader,” he says of the move. A year ago, Anders joined PHIX as a project manager, drawn by the size of the photonics ecosystem that has grown up in Bozeman, Montana.
That ecosystem, he explains, traces back mainly to one source. “The short answer is Montana State University, which is, in sense, very similar to Twente. It all broke out of MSU with a bunch of physicists who were interested in photonics and didn’t want to leave the mountains.” He pauses on that thought. “It turns out that the same attitude that leads you to scaling mountains in your spare time also leads to successful businesses.”
From Twente to Montana
Anders has spent much of the past year at PHIX getting the Bozeman facility off the ground. “We have been busy setting up the manufacturing facility. We have now finished the clean room, which is looking very nicely, and can run small and mid-sized projects.”
“It has been far from smooth sailing,” adds Anders, explaining that the PHIX’s Montana facility had to deal with the consequences of the U.S. government shutdown. “Moreover, the photonics industry is exploding, and we had to get in line for the same equipment every other company is waiting for. It takes four to six months for one of the machines to be built and delivered.”
Despite being on different continents, the facility in Montana is remarkably similar to the one in the Netherlands, explains Anders. “Compared to the facility in Twente, the one in Bozeman is considerably smaller, but we have transferred all the processes that have been established there. In the end, any product developed here will be exactly the same as one developed in Twente.”
Anders visited the Enschede site earlier this year and found the day-to-day surprisingly familiar. “It all felt exactly the same as here. Although, I must say, getting to the office was different. It was nice to see so many people riding bikes, and the public transport is much more advanced than what we have in Montana.”
“Compared to the facility in Twente, the one in Bozeman is considerably smaller, but we have transferred all the processes that have been established there.”
What he values most, he says, is the international thread that now runs through his work. “Here in Montana, you mostly get to work with people who have a very similar background, but in the Netherlands, I get to talk to colleagues who grew up all over the world. The amount of support we’ve received from the Dutch facility has been incredible, even though our working hours only overlap by an hour.”
Deep country
Although Anders lives only about twenty minutes away from the office, on the western slopes of the Bridger mountains, his house feels like it lies – in his words – in deep country. “We regularly get visits from black bears on our property, and I have to dodge deer on my drive to work.”
He and his wife bought an 1880s farmhouse just before the pandemic. It’s a Sears catalogue house, originally ordered by mail and shipped by train with all its materials and blueprints. “We were clearing out old floorboards and found pennies from 1905.” Three years of renovation later, reinforcing the structure and modernising the electricity and plumbing, the house now even has air conditioning.
Their son Axel, almost five years old, lived through the whole rebuild – first in a trailer on the property, then the garage, then the ground floor, says Anders. “I did most of the finishing work myself and spent every painstaking minute getting the house to the level I wanted.” With the renovation successfully behind them, the family recently welcomed a daughter.
Life outside work follows the seasons: rafting and mountain biking in summer, skiing and cross-country skiing in winter. “The mountains are right at our door, so it’s easy to go out. Our backyard is the best playground in the world,” says Anders.
As for what’s next, Anders is excited to enjoy what he already has. “I live the life I’ve always wanted. I go skiing at least twice a week in the winter, I bike all the time, and now I get to share all of it with my wife and kids.” On top of outdoor activities, he might get back to an old hobby – building snowboards, adds Anders. “I wanted to get some hands-on experience and I love riding snowboards. I would like to get back to it and start riding for fun. Maybe that is an item for my bucket list,” he pauses. “I’ll build snowboards for my kids now.”
Are you interested in a career at PHIX?
As a rapidly growing integrated photonics packaging foundry we are always looking for new talent. Even if our current job openings aren’t an exact fit, we are eager to meet promising candidates who are experienced in photonics.
