SPIE Fellow Jay Eastman passed away on 20 April 2023 at the age of 74.
A longtime SPIE member, Eastman was also a member of the Rochester Engineering Society and served on the Board of Directors of The National Women's Hall of Fame in his hometown of Seneca Falls.
Eastman earned his PhD in optical engineering from the University of Rochester in 1974. After working for a while in Mountain View, California, he returned to manage the engineering division of the University of Rochester's Laboratory for Laser Energetics where he later became the director.
His many awards include the Rochester Institute of Technology's Vanden Bruhl Entrepreneurial Award (1996), the Leo H. East Memorial Engineer of the Year Award (1997), and the Rochester Regional Photonics Cluster Leadership Award in 2014.
He was involved with the National Academy of Science and served on the Board of Assessment of NIST Programs. For many years, he worked on the Finger Lakes Regional Economic Development Council in support of the region’s optics and photonics industry.
Eastman was a serial entrepreneur having founded three companies. He was an inventor or co-inventor on 48 issued US patents. At the time of his death, he was the co-founder with his son of Optel, Inc., a company focused on developing and manufacturing medical devices for third-party medical companies.
In lieu of flowers, donations in Eastman’s name are welcomed to the National Women’s Hall of Fame, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, or Rochester Community Inclusive Rowing.
Read the obituary from New York Photonics.
