Romeo I. and Erlinda Mercado Scholarship in Optical Sciences

Dr. Romeo I. Mercado is an optical engineering professional with more than 30 years of experience and a proven record of profitable accomplishments achieved through creative, multi-disciplinary research and development teams, establishing intellectual property and marketable products. He has authored more than 30 technical papers in optics and optical designs, holds 35 U.S. patents and a number of foreign patents on optical system designs. Romeo earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Far Eastern University in the Philippines, and a M.S. and Ph.D. in Optical Sciences from the University of Arizona in 1971 and 1973, respectively. 

Erlinda Mercado earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Far Eastern University. Her career as a quality engineer included work in qualitative and quantitative chemical analyses, semiconductor manufacturing and metrology. In the early 1970’s, she completed courses at the UA in statistics and computer programming.   

This scholarship was established by Romeo and Erlinda to support a full-time graduate student pursuing a degree in optics with a thesis or dissertation related to the field of optical design.