Director of Technology and StrategyJessica DeGroote Nelson
“Spirit of innovation. There’s very little “I can’t” and a lot of “I’ll try” or “I can’t believe I did that”, which is absolutely fantastic.”
Joined Optimax: 2007
Role: Director of Technology and Strategy
Education: Jessica holds a bachelor’s, master's and Ph.D. in optics from University of Rochester’s Institute of Optics. Jessica also earned an MBA from the Simon Business School at the University of Rochester, while working full-time at Optimax. She is also currently an adjunct faculty at The Institute of Optics teaching an undergraduate and graduate course on Optical Fabrication Materials and Testing.
Experience: She started her career at Optimax after graduating from the University of Rochester. During the past ten years at Optimax, Jessica has not only expanded and improved the internal optical manufacturing processes, but has also won several Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awards, funded by NASA and the Department of Defense (DoD), leading a team of researchers on these initiatives.
Associations/Leadership: Jessica is an active member and presenter with the Optical Society of America (OSA) SPIE, American Ceramic Society (ACerS) and the American Society of Precision Engineers (ASPE), and Optics and Electro Optics Standard Council (OEOSC), where she is currently the chair. She is also active in the local section of the Optical Society of America (OSA) – Rochester Section where she served as president and currently leads outreach activities.
Currently, she is also serving as an associate editor for SPIE’s Optical Engineering publication and an editor of SPIE’s Tutorial Text series. In addition, she is chair of several upcoming conferences including SPIE Optifab, OSA’s Optical Fabrication and Testing and OSA’s Freeform.