Category Archives: Alumni

A CREOL’s alumnus’ groundbreaking work in the field of quantitative phase imaging recently earned him the Dennis Gabor Award in Diffractive Optics from the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE). SPIE cited multiple achievements by Gabriel Popescu, Ph.D., ’02, as the basis for the win, including Popescu’s advancements in the technology that study live […]

A passion for helping others and the technical expertise to make it happen recently earned a global prize for CREOL graduate Ceyhun Akcay, Ph.D., ’05. As senior director of research and development at medical technology company Alcon, Akcay builds lenses to correct cataracts, the leading cause of preventable blindness. The implantable lens developed by Akcay […]

Brian Monacelli, Ph.D., ’05, may have recently helped send a laser-based Raman and fluorescence spectrometer to Mars on the Perseverance rover, but the achievement he’s most proud of might surprise you. Monacelli’s passion is rooted in teaching and supporting technicians to ensure their success in the workplace. His interest in education began as a youth, […]

A chance encounter in the workplace is what led Rebecca Venegas, M.S ’20, to find her purpose as an electro-optics engineer. Venegas, a scientist who specializes in integration and characterization of EO systems, was looking for meaning in her work after graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a degree in Astronautics and Aeronautics. […]

Richard DeSalvo, Ph.D. ‘93, takes wireless communications further into the future every day, but it’s the people of his past that inspire his every step — beginning with Neil Armstrong. DeSalvo credits the 1969 moon landing and his mother for steering him toward the sciences in general, but it would take years of starts and […]

Leaving his home in Romania wasn’t something Gabriel Popescu, Ph.D ’02, ever expected to do until the opportunity presented itself. Motivated by the chance to make an impact on the world, Popescu packed his bags and left home in 1997 to pursue an American education at the CREOL, College of Optics and Photonics. It’s been […]

CREOL, College of Optics and Photonics, often serves as a launchpad for students to decide the direction they want to take their career and studies. And, often, it’s a distinguished and notable direction. That was certainly the case with Latifah Maasarani, who moved on to Duke University for graduate studies in biomedical engineering after successfully […]

A deep knowledge of wave band sensors and a sturdy pair of hiking boots are both important to Roger Rose’s job. A self-described “underachiever” in high school, Rose ’21 MS failed intermediate algebra three times in community college. Realizing he needed a change, Rose made a life-changing decision and moved to Tallahassee Community College. There he […]

The dawn of the Information Age and the advent of high-speed internet coincided right around the time Carl Kutsche, Ph.D., ’98, enrolled in CREOL, the College of Optics and Photonics. “I was all about optical systems—self processing, information storage, 3D holography. You could feel the energy buzzing around the growth of this field,” said Kutsche, […]

The power of spectroscopy is proving a gamechanger for identifying pollutants in nature and building a career for Ty Olmstead, Ph.D., ’11. Olmstead was first hired at Ocean Insight five years ago as an application scientist with a Ph.D from CREOL, the College of Optics and Photonics, supporting the endeavor. He was recently promoted to […]

Thousands of people are seeing more clearly thanks in part to the vision of Vadim Smirnov,’02 MS, whose research group played an integral role in the development of lasers that revolutionized cataract surgery. Local optical component manufacturer OptiGrate Corp was approached by a medical laser company more than 10 years ago with a request to […]

Brian Lawrence, Ph.D., ‘96, sees problems as opportunities. A self-described “experimentalist at heart,” Lawrence ran into plenty of problems in seventh grade when he built a power supply to power a donated HeNe laser tube to explore his curiosity about lasers. Those problems became learning opportunities that led him to eventually assemble more powerful ruby […]