Wyant College Alumnus and Teammates Win Optica's 2022 Paul F. Forman Team Engineering Excellence Award
Wyant College alumnus, Jacob Smith (MS 2010), is part of the team that received Optica's 2022 Paul F. Forman Team Engineering Excellence Award recognizing their work on the Leica Microsystem's EnFocus Intraoperative Optical Coherence Tomography Development Team. Jacob has worked with Leica Microsystems for nearly 6 years now and was previously the New Product Introduction Optical Engineer and was recently promoted to Manufacturing Engineer. The group's research originally began in a startup called Bioptigen, based on research at Duke University, then bought by Leica Microsystems in 2015. Along with working on Leica Microsystem's EnFocus, the company also manufactures Envisu, which is a standalone handheld probe OCT system used in pediatrics and research. Learn more about Leica Microsystem's EnFocus and other inventions here.
Optica states that the team's recognition is, “for developing an optically brilliant, latency-free intrasurgical optical coherence tomography microscope that fully integrates into the ophthalmic surgical workflow, allowing a surgeon to see more and do more to preserve patient sight.”
The 2022 award will be presented during Frontiers in Optics + Laser Science (FiO LS). Optica President, Stoshi Kawata said of the team, “Optica is proud to honor this diverse team for their impactful work to improve the outcomes of ophthalmic surgeries by providing surgeons with real-time information and a complete picture of subsurface details."
Team Members include:
Robert Hart
Mark Bowers
Mehran (Ron) Ghofrani
Daniel Albertson
Eric Lynch
Bing Ren
Dorothy Branco
Hansford Hendargo, PhD
Allison Hartman, PhD
Jacob Smith
Terry Hunsinger
Elizabeth Hummel
Genine Grant
Christopher Saxer, PhD
Hafeez Dhalla
Fun Fact!
While Jacob is both an engineer and alumnus of the Wyant College, he is also a published author!!! Check out his book, an allegory for Optical Coherence Tomography (which also happens to be the topic for which this award was given!), Spectra and the Magic Sled of Nir.