Key worker on iPhone camera team dies in crash
Paul Alioshin loved tinkering with things, and it was that passion that helped him create some of the biggest technological innovations in our time, including working on the team that brought the first camera to the iPhone.
Alioshin was known as a risk taker and for pushing the boundaries of technology. Friends and family say he died doing what he loved — taking his favorite vintage Fiat Abarth out for a drive on winding Highway 36 in Humboldt County. After sustaining major injuries from a car accident on Sept. 11, he died Saturday in Redding. Alioshin was 50.
The Palo Alto resident was a self-proclaimed gear head and loved to take things apart and build something better. He grew up in Lafayette and graduated from UC San Diego in 1989 with a degree in electrical and electronics engineering. Over his career, Alioshin worked on high-resolution projection TVs at Silicon Light Machines and took apart cameras to build a 360-degree camera under a startup called Centr Cam that was later purchased by Amazon’s Lab126.
“Paul was a creative engi-
neer and a genuinely nice guy,” said Amazon spokeswoman Kinley Pearsall in an email. “He will be missed both at Lab126 and across the valley.”
Alioshin also worked at Apple from 2005 to 2010, working on cameras in the iMac and MacBook as well as iPhones, according to his LinkedIn profile. During that time, Alioshin was part of a team that brought the camera to the first iPhone — a notable milestone, since highquality cameras have become a signature feature of the iPhone. Alioshin was the first full-time person working on camera hardware at Apple, said Cina Hazegh, who had Alioshin as a manager when he worked at Apple.
At Silicon Light, Alioshin was admired by his colleagues for his dry wit and ability to make startup life fun, despite high pressure from venture capitalists who wanted to see a return on their investment quickly, said Jim Hunter, the company’s director of process technology.
“Paul was really good in an artful way of using humor and sarcasm to blow off the pressure of the moment but still keep people on task and focused and committed to what we were trying to do,” Hunter said.
In his off time, Alioshin loved biking, riding in motorcycles and fixing up his red Fiat Abarth 750. He found the 1960 Abarth by peeping through a hole in a fence inside a Hollywood vintage car lot. He liked to fix up the car in his spare time and added a new muffler and engine.
“He had this funny joke how he was Italian,” said Kat Alioshin, adding that her husband was actually of Danish ancestry. “He appreciated Italian clothes, motorcycles and cars.”
He also had a connection with the number 11:11, his wife said. She met him in college and both worked at a radio station where a co-worker believed the numbers “11:11” meant a message from an angel. Paul Alioshin didn’t buy into that, but he and Kat would find themselves pointing out connections to the number, and eventually it became a tradition for the couple to call each other at 11:11 a.m. The two were married on Nov. 11 and Alioshin’s memorial will be held that day, his wife said.
Alioshin is also survived by his children, Desmond and Penelope, sister Annette Dale and father Greg Alioshin.