Vision team to be part of research center

A new research center that has been approved by the National Science Founda tion (NSF) will include a team of scientists at the University who are developing a new laser-based system to see the inside of the human eye in more detail than ever before.

The Center for Adaptive Optics will be based at the University of California at Santa Cruz and include researchers from 10 universities, including Rochester, as well as several companies and national laboratories. The Rochester team will include researchers from Bausch & Lomb, Inc.

The center is one of five new science and technology research centers funded by the NSF for the next five years; scientists at each center will receive up to $20 million for research. At the adaptive optics center, researchers will focus on a technology widely used by astronomers to offset distortion in the atmosphere. This will allow them to see distant stars and planets better than they would with conventional technology.

On a much smaller scale, the same type of distortion occurs within the eyes. David Williams, director of the College's Center for Visual Science, will head a group of researchers exploring the use of adaptive optics in vision research. Working with Williams will be undergraduate and graduate students at the University, as well as former student Don Miller, assistant professor of optometry at Indiana University, and former postdoctoral researcher Austin Roorda, assistant professor of optometry at the University of Houston.

Williams and colleagues have developed a laser-based system that allows scientists to see inside the human eye more clearly than ever before. A key to the system is a precision device known as a deformable mirror. It is equipped with 37 tiny computer-controlled pistons to move minute regions of the 2-inch-wide device ever so slightly in response to customized information about a person's eye.

While Williams and his associates study vision, most adaptive optics researchers are astronomers trying to get a better look at the heavens. "The center will make it much easier for us to rub shoulders with researchers in the astronomy community," said Williams, who is the William G. Allyn Professor of Medical Optics. "Astronomers have already solved some of the same issues we're facing."