Dr. Wyant: educator, expert, and entrepreneur

Dr. James C. Wyant invited a young undergraduate to declare Optical Sciences as his major, claiming that optics offered innovation, impact, and challenges; backing that claim up with stories of his career of academic discoveries and entrepreneurial successes. Years later, the lasting contributions Dr. Wyant made to the field of metrology offered a new point for further exploration, both for the original student and another young optical scientist coming from the University of Rochester. These students, Dr. Graves and Dr. Trumper, joined the graduate optical sciences program at the University of Arizona to further explore the field of optical metrology and science that Dr. Wyant had been a pioneer of. With the generous support of the Friends of Tucson Optics (FoTO) Scholarship to support them early in their careers, and one of Dr. Wyant’s prior students turned professor to advise them, Dr. Graves and Dr. Trumper learned the intricacies and needs of the field of optics and metrology, and how a commercial product needs to serve the customers. These experiences, and knowledge of Dr. Wyant’s own entrepreneurial successes, provided the required motivation, knowledge, and community to create ELE Optics, a company providing software solutions to the optical science community. We are indebted to Dr. Wyant’s generosity, kindness, and accomplishments and strive to show our appreciation for his vision.