Page 8 - Buzz Magazine - Issue 4 Fall 2022 | University of Rochester

T AKING A We asked three alumni who The study of light
graduated in different generations
has a profound
L OOK A T to provide their perspectives on impact on everyday
optics, education, and the future.
life, especially for
these three Institute
of Optics alumni

by KRISTINE KAPPEL THOMPSON

Optics is all about light: how it’s
CHERINE GHAZOUANI ’21 propagated, generated, and
A native of Tunisia, Cherine Ghazouani detected. It’s small, it’s lightweight,
is an optical design engineer at and nothing in the world moves
ASML, a semiconductor company faster. It plays a central role in our
in Connecticut. In college, she was daily lives, too, without most of us
a Student Alumni Ambassador, knowing it.
a peer advisor, an Ain Center for
Entrepreneurship and Innovation The applications are vast—from
ambassador, and the recipient of an entertainment to science to
Alan and Jane Handler Scholarship, medicine and beyond—and its
which is awarded to students based impact is huge. But meeting
on their financial need, exceptional the growing demand for optics
academic talent, and outstanding professionals is a challenge.
leadership potential. “Because nearly everything is
powered by optics, the field
is growing at an incredible
rate,” says Tom Brown ’87 (PhD),
director of the University’s
Institute of Optics and the Mercer
Brugler Distinguished Teaching
Professor. “And, right now, there
just aren’t enough knowledgeable,
skilled, and trained scholars,
BALA MANIAN ’69
Bala Manian is an Indian-born researchers, engineers, and
Silicon Valley entrepreneur and technicians out there. We—and
a University life trustee. Career the world—need more of them.”
highlights include developing the first A recent gift from University of
laser scanner for the supermarket Rochester life trustee James C.
industry, earning an Academy Award
certificate for technical achievement Wyant ’67 (MS), ’69 (PhD), ’21
in the film industry, and creating (Honorary) and his wife, Tammy
medical testing and instrumentation Wyant, will help meet this demand.
technology and products. This fall, the couple established a
$12 million, 10-year professorship
challenge that will help the
institute increase its faculty by
50 percent, graduate the next
generation of optics professionals,
and help the institute grow its
preeminent status.
WHAT FASCINATES YOU
ABOUT OPTICS?
ALEXIS VOGT ’00, ’08 (PHD)
Alexis Vogt is the endowed chair and CG: It’s everywhere. Many
professor of optics for the Optical people assume I’m an optician
Systems Technology program at or that I do something related
Monroe Community College in to eye glasses. I want people
Rochester, N.Y. This is the nation’s to know that optics is all this
only two-year degree program that and more. My work actually has
trains technicians for work in the to do with the semiconductor
precision optics industry.
8 | UNIVERSITY OF ROCHES TER BUZZ MA G AZINE