Delivering on a vision of growth in optics

VOLUME 19, NUMBER 6 DAILY EDITION: http//www.rbjdaily.com MAY 16, 2003

PUBLISHED WEEKLY

By SMRITI JACOB

Breaking a world record was one ofthe f irst things Wayne Knoxachieved after earning his graduate

degree.Knox in 1985 created the shortest light

pulse, 8 femto seconds—eight quadril-lionths of a second—as a post-doctoralresearcher at Bell Labs, the innovation en-gine behind Lucent Technologies Inc. Itearned him a spot in the Guinness Book ofWorld Records.

Knox’s technical achievements, love foracademics and industry experience wereamong the reasons University of Rochesterofficials lured him back here to head its In-stitute of Optics some two years ago.

“He was a well-known person. We knewhis academic training well and he had verygood blend of academic and industry ex-perience. Also, he had incredible energyand he would bring it back to the Instituteof Optics,” says Thomas LeBlanc, viceprovost and the Robert and Mary Sproulldean of faculty for the College of Arts,Sciences and Engineering.

As its director, Knox is eager to applythat energy and enthusiasm to growingthe Institute of Optics and pushing it fur-ther into the spotlight.

“We have to keep moving, recruiting thebest faculty, graduate students and con-tinue to build our optics program,” Knoxsays. “Optics is an extraordinarily com-petitive f ield.”

Knox, 45, is responsible for recruitingand retaining faculty, determining teach-ing assignments and attracting new stu-dents. He also teaches an optics course.

The institute has 100 graduate studentsand 82 undergraduate students studyingcourses in optics.

Some 16 full-time faculty and 11 staffmembers report to Knox. Roughly eightUR professors from the departments ofphysics, electrical engineering, medicineand others hold joint appointments at theinstitute. Knox expects to boost employ-ment at the institute to 24 full-time facultymembers within the next few years.

Since his arrival, Knox has hired fourfaculty members and launched a $30 mil-

lion optics/biomedical engineering proj-ect. The project includes two key elements:the Center for Institute Ventures and a100,000-square-foot facility connectingUR’s optics and biomedical engineeringdepartments.

Center for Institute VenturesCIV is expected to create some 900 lo-

cal jobs and $90 million in revenues overa f ive-year period. With an initial focuson optics and biomedical engineering, itsgoal is to f ill a void for local entrepre-neurs by attracting venture capital and ex-posing researchers to new developmentopportunities.

It hopes to play a role intechnology transfer andvalidation. CIV plans toline up three to f ive ven-ture capitalists this year tosupport the center’s efforts

“The Center for InstituteVentures would have alarge impact on the de-partment, significantly in-creasing intellectual prop-erty revenues,” Knox says.“Also it will encourage fac-ulty to stay.”

The optics/BME plan wascreated to support funda-mental research through sev-eral stages until it reaches aproduct form. It is expectedto retain faculty and studentsin the Rochester area.

“We think it is going tobe a really exciting pro-gram,” Knox says. “I wasjust in San Francisco andventure capitalists in theBay area are very interest-ed. The ventures program isa critical part of the project.VCs need something to at-tract them and optics andmedicine can be a verystrong attractor.”

Knox expects the entirefacility to become opera-tional by early 2006. Theproject has received $3.38million in funds, including

a $3 million gift from Charles Munner-lyn, co-founder of Visx Inc. and a formerstudent of the institute. His donation wasthe largest gift in the institute’s history.

“We are still in fund-raising mode but weneed to have the whole thing f inished by2006,” Knox says. “We are in discussionswith several alumni and state off icials.The business community should know wereally need their help to get this going.”

Knox hopes to contact architects thissummer.

The plan calls for the building to con-nect the Institute of Optics and the bio

Photo by Kimberly McKinzie

LIGHT SPEED—Wayne Knox serves as director of the Instituteof Optics at the University of Rochester. He leads a $30 millionoptics/biomedical engineering project expected to create hun-dreds of jobs.

Delivering on a vision of growth in opticsRecord-setting scientist Wayne Knox leads the efforts to expand the Institute of Optics at URBy SMRITI JACOB

Continued on next page

Reprinted with permission of theRochester Business Journal.

medical engineering departments. The in-stitute is housed in the Wilmot building onthe River Campus. Biomedical engineer-ing faculty and staff are in f ive buildings.The five-story structure will connect to theWilmot building through a glass atrium.

It also will have research laboratoriesand classrooms for optics and biomedicalengineering faculty and students. Prox-imity to UR’s medical center is expectedto increase interaction among faculty fromoptics, BME and URMC researchers. In-troducing a distance-learning program anda renovated science and engineering quadalso are planned.

Expanding the Institute of Optics is crit-ical to its future success, Knox says.

“Boston University’s photonics centeris a 200,000-square-foot building and builtinto that is a 25,000-square-foot incuba-tor space,” he adds. “The amazing thing isthat here in the Wilmot building we have25,000 square feet of space. This showshow competition is so seriously outbuildingus, that our building fits just into their in-cubator space.”

The Institute of Optics, begun in 1929,has awarded more than half of the optics de-grees in the United States. But the insti-tute has seen increasing competition fromschools such as University of Arizona,Boston University and Duke University.

Knox expects UR’s expansion to boostthe institute’s presence and gain a strongerfoothold in the optics world.

“The biggest success is getting strongsupport from the administration to do thesethings to remain competitive,” he says.“The administration has really wanted to seethese great things come out of the depart-ment. We have to do things to stay ahead.”

Rochester rootsBorn into a family of UR alumni, Knox

grew up in the Cobbs Hill area.“I came from a scientif ic musical fam-

ily. My mother came to Rochester for mu-sic and my father came here to be at the uni-versity’s physics department,” Knox says.“I was studying flute at the Eastman Schoolof Music when I was in seventh grade.”

But excelling at studies came later, headds.

“I was a late bloomer,” Knox says witha laugh. “When I met this woman Victo-ria Visiko, who later became my wife, Idecided it was time to start doing well soI signed up for AP math and AP chemistryand my teachers were wondering what hap-pened to me.”

Rochester Institute of Technology’s co-op program attracted Knox.

“I was very interested in RIT becauseof its co-op program; it seemed like a good

idea to have a source of income because Iwas seeing Victoria at that point,” Knoxsays. “I started in electrical engineering,but quickly switched over to physics.”

His life and career paths began to takeform. Knox married Visiko when he turned18. At RIT, he took a course in optics,paving the way to a career in the f ield.

“I came across the one optics coursethat they had at RIT and one day I heardone of the other physics professor in thehall who was talking about co-op jobs atthe laser lab,” Knox says. “I couldn’t helpoverhearing and I went over to him andsaid maybe I could get a summer job.”

While pursuing a degree at RIT, Knoxwas hired to work part time at UR’s Lab-oratory for Laser Energetics.

“I was very much involved in the ini-tial phases of building the laser,” Knoxsays. “But one night we were out at a Ger-man restaurant and these guys told me ifyou are that interested in optics, why don’tyou join the Institute of Optics. It is 100percent optics. I had been born in Rochesterand I had never heard of the place.”

Knox transferred to UR during his soph-omore year.

“In my senior year I started thinkingabout some other places for my graduatestudies,” he says. “But I was already pub-

lishing papers and doing many things soI considered staying here.”

Knox graduated with a bachelor of sci-ence in optics in 1979 and immediatelybegan pursuing a doctoral degree.

“I continued to do research at the laserlab,” Knox says. “It was such a world-classplace and I had a great experience work-ing. It is important to have that experi-ence in the lab and the classroom.”

Knox won many accolades during hisyears as a graduate student, including fel-lowships from the laser lab and IBM Corp.He also was a visiting staff member at LosAlamos National Laboratory in New Mex-ico and at the Laboratoire d’Optique Ap-pliquee in France.

“He always had this raw enthusiasm andwas very personable and sociable,” saysJames Zavislan, associate professor at theInstitute of Optics and CIV’s director. Za-vislan and Knox were graduate studentstogether at UR.

The bell soundsIn early 1984, Knox was hired as a post-

doctoral member of the technical staff atBell Labs’ optical physics research de-partment. He and his family moved to NewJersey.

Continued from previous page


Knox: “We have to keep moving, recruiting the best faculty, graduate students and con-tinue to build our optics program. Optics is an extraordinarily competitive field.”



“My adviser told me, ‘There is only oneplace for you Wayne and that is Bell Labs,’”Knox recalls. “He practically would notallow me to go any other place; it was pret-ty funny. And I kind of wondered you know,what is the big deal?”

So Knox turned down a full-time positionat California-based Hughes Research Lab-oratories LLC, another leading optics lab.

“I walked into a lab with millions ofdollars worth of equipment,” Knox says.“I was working with very famous peopleand was able to do a large amount of re-search in the ultrafast science and tech-nology area.”

Knox’s world record in 1985 helped himgrab a post as a member of the technicalstaff in the optical physics research de-partment, he says.

“I think that convinced Bell Labs to con-vert me to a permanent position withinone year,” he laughs. “So they probablysaid, ‘Just hire the guy!’”

The new post allowed him to start hisown laboratory.

“That was a big difference,” Knox says.“At Bell Labs you walk into an empty laband they say here is a million bucks and allyou have to do is become famous in what-ever f ield you work in and if you screw itup don’t ask us for any more money.

“That is a tremendous amount of pres-sure because it is research and you don’tknow how it is going to turn out unlessyou have the right intuition—that is whenyou find out if you are a good scientist.”

Knox was promoted in 1993 to distin-guished member of technical staff at BellLabs’ advanced photonics research de-partment.

“He was quite exceptional. Wayne wascreative and had the ability to think outof the box. He is very excited about opticsand science; it oozes out of his every pore,”says Alastair Glass, director of the infor-mation and communications technologydivision at the Science Foundation of Ire-land. Glass formerly was vice presidentof photonics research at Bell Labs.

Traditionally, however, Bell Labs rarelypromoted distinguished researchers, Knoxsays.

“It was a big honor, but people also saidwhen they make you a member of distin-guished staff, they are doing this to retainyou. But it also means they are never go-ing to promote you any further,” he adds.“I never believed those things.”

Four years later, Knox was asked to takea position as director of the advanced pho-tonics research department.

“I had a department of 20 wild and crazyBell Lab researchers, including some sci-entists that were 30 years my senior who

had been there the whole time and I wastold to start acting like a boss,” Knox says.“The huge challenge is when you havebeen given all that management respon-sibility, not only do you have to clear theway for your own research, you have nowbeen given the responsibility to clear theway for all these other researchers.

“For them to respect you as a manager,you have to make them respect you as ascientist and for that you have to keeppumping out research. Dropping researchis a point of no return for a scientist.”

With an annual discretionary budget of $1.5 million, Knox’s lab focused on proj-ects such as fundamental semiconductorphysics and nonlinear optics. He was re-sponsible for managing multimillion-dol-lar projects funded by other business units.

Knox had a knack for spotting talent,Glass says.

“One of his very great strengths is hisability to hire good people,” he adds. “Hefound some incredibly good people.”

Renewing ties to RochesterIn 1998, UR contacted Knox to serve

on a visiting trustees committee that con-ducted an annual review of its laser lab. Heaccepted and began making regular vis-its to UR.

A year later, Knox was honored with theRichtmyer Memorial award from the Amer-ican Association of Physics Teachers.

“The award made me feel teaching was

in my future,” Knox says.His prediction turned out to be accurate.

In 2000, while attending a visiting trusteesmeeting for UR’s laser lab, he learned ofan opening at the Institute of Optics.

“The previous director had left to go toVanderbilt University,” Knox says. “It leftthis place without this rudder. It was avery diff icult time in the optics industry,because of the telecom bubble and all ofthe speculation.

“VCs were dumping so much money intovery shaky ideas. People in companies wereleaving to start up their own companies.”

Knox noticed similarities between the In-stitute of Optics’ issues and his depart-ment at Bell Labs. Faculty members alsowere interested in industry opportunities,which resulted in losing professors andgraduate students who were interested ina particular professor’s expertise.

“At Bell Labs it became a full-time jobto try to convince my department membersnot to run off to manage startup companies,”Knox says. “It was really interesting to hearthat one of the challenges in this depart-ment was not only were other places tryingto pick off faculty members, but facultymembers also left to start up companies.”

The institute needed a new leader tobring it back on track.

“The institute is one of our jewels and,frankly, it was beginning to languish.Wayne has made an enormous differencealready,” says Robert McCrory, directorof UR’s laser lab.

Knox applied for and landed the job in2001.

“He has a number of strengths that madehim the ideal person. He was very strongscientifically and worked at one of the lead-ing labs in the world,” says Gary Wicks, pro-fessor and associate director of the institute.

“He was well-watched by the faculty,”adds Dean LeBlanc.

A $1 million startup package from thestate’s office of science, technology and ac-ademic research also helped draw Knox toUR. When he joined the institute, Knoxbrought roughly $500,000 dollars of equip-ment as a university donation from Bell Labs.

Knox quickly had to switch gears to adaptto teaching and the academic environment.

“Coming in to chair a department ofprofessors when you haven’t been a pro-fessor yourself is a challenge. The onlything I can say is that you better learnquickly,” he says.

Knox is known to bring fun into the class-room. It is not uncommon for the professorto enter a class wheeling in a box of toys todemonstrate optical networking principles.

“He is a very visual person and is play-ful,” UR’s Zavislan says. “He brings asense of fun and innocence to education.”


Wayne KnoxTitle: Director, Institute of Opticsand professor, University of Rochester Age: 45Home: PittsfordEducation: B.S. in optics, 1979; Ph.D.in optics, UR, 1983World record: Listed in the 1989Guinness Book of World Records ascreating the shortest light pulseFamily: Wife, Victoria; sons, Christo-pher, 23, Scot, 4, and Orlando, 3;daughters, Leilani, 8, Wailea, 6, andHanalei, 1Interests: Playing bass, Hawaiianguitar, lute, flute and piano; kayak-ing; ice skating; skiing; spending timewith the familyQuote: “Optics in Rochester is verywell-known and can be a real attrac-tor. It is one of the core values of thecity. We think we can play a very im-portant role in the economic devel-opment discussion that is going on.”

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Knox also is a consultant to the opticsindustry. He owns and operates WHK Con-sulting and works closely with local andnational optics f irms.

“Everybody in the industry knowsWayne. He has such a wealth of infor-mation and doesn’t lack ideas. He is ableto conceptualize ideas and put them in-to words that anybody can understand,”says Richard Corey, president of Optics-Professionals LLC, a career consultan-cy f irm focused on the optics industry.Corey assists Knox with his consultingpractice.

Knox is involved in the optics commu-nity worldwide. He serves on industryboards, including the Optical Society ofAmerica, Rochester Regional PhotonicsCluster and the Science Foundation of Ire-land. On the corporate front, he is a mem-ber of Michigan-based Translume Inc.’stechnical advisory board.

“The position of the director of the In-stitute of Optics is a very visible posi-tion,” UR’s Wicks says. “It is a leadingdepartment and it naturally places one inthe front of the field of optics. He has donea fantastic job.”

Knox and his family live in Pittsford.His wife runs a Hawaiian dance studio andTiki theater called Gallery Kauai.

He still plays a variety of musical in-struments, including the Hawaiian andbass guitar, flute, lute and the piano. Ski-ing, ice skating and kayaking are amonghis other interests.

Knox also appears to have an aff inityfor gadgets—ensconced among the manyawards and toys in his off ice are a fewcomputers. One computer streams out in-formation to a screen display in the hall-way that features the institute’s alumnithat own companies or have business con-nections.

Using the optics/BME project as a tool,Knox sees his focus on connecting busi-ness and academic research as a way togrow the local optics industry and bring at-tention to the institute.

“We have to have a bricks-and-mortarcomponent, new programs, new facultyhires, students, we have to have all of it,from research to getting ready to start acompany,” he says. “Any one of these in-dividual things is not enough. So here ismy answer based on the community slogan.‘Rochester. Made for investing.’”

[email protected] / 585-546-8303




Wayne Knox heads the Institute of Optics,which has awarded more than half of the op-tics degrees in the United States.

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Delivering on a vision of growth in optics