Steve’s journey to a professional career in optics began in highschool. In his own words, “I was interested in astronomy, so I needed a telescope. Since I didn’t have money to buy one, I built one, which included grinding and polishing the mirror. Along the way, I studied to find out how to design a good telescope and discovered that I liked the theory better than the practice. When I got to college, I excitedly took my copy of Conrady’s Applied Optics and Optical Design into the optics professor’s office to tell him I couldn’t wait to study this subject. He thumbed through the book and told me I’d have to wait for grad school to study optics at that level. Four years later I started grad school in optical engineering and I’ve been working in the field ever since.”

Today, Steve is a world class lens designer with a PhD in Optics from the University of Arizona and thirty years of experience in optical engineering. His experience includes designing single element lenses to multi-element zoom lenses in wavelengths from the deep UV to the thermal IR. He has created test instruments for retroreflectivity, polarization, high illuminance weathering (life testing), and robotic assembly, as well as illumination systems for projectors and stage lighting (you can view the patents for several of these here). When Steve’s not reading or spending time with his grandkids he acts as president of Eckhardt Optics, chief lens designer, and walking dictionary of all things optical.