A match between Optics and Physics, the Photon Cup features undergraduate students, graduate students and faculty from each department in a friendly rivalry to name the best department of the year.

And, while Physics might have thought their knowledge of buckminster fullerenes would lead them to the win, the control of this particular soccer “buckyball” proved too much. Perhaps it was one group of atoms they couldn’t control with much “coherence.”

Optics triumphed over the department 4-3, coming back from a 3-0 half-time deficit. After some tactical adjustments at halftime, Optics went into an “excited state” and was able to control the run of play in the second half.

By all accounts Steve Gillmer of Optics was athlete of the match, scoring twice. One goal was a brilliant 30-yard half-volley.

Physics has yet to hoist the Cup with Optics winning the past 2 years and the first contest ending in a draw.

Watch Highlights from the 2012 Photon Cup

When and how did you choose your major?

I started at UR with the intention of doing statistics and decided to take Optics 101 as an elective after hearing about the field of Optics from an upper classman in the program because it sounded pretty cool. After learning about all the cool effects in nature that can be explained by optics and all the applications and fields that rely on optics technology, I decided to stick around.  Wayne Knox was a pretty fun person to learn from!

What did you do immediately after graduation? How did you decide to take that path?

I spent the summer after graduation traveling and relaxing (and going broke…) before I started the Master’s program in Optics at UA. I had a tough time deciding whether to go find a full time job or continue school, but in the end, I decided I wanted to solidify my technical knowledge more and take the opportunity to live someplace different and explore different areas of optics.

What do you do now, and why did you choose this career?

I currently do opto-mechanical design for Edmund Optics. In grad school, I focused on opto-mechanics since I thought it was an interesting cross-discipline, and there weren’t a lot of people in that field. I find design work challenging, but very rewarding, especially since I get to see some of the products I work on being used by customers and in our labs.

How do you balance your work and personal life?

I don’t know if I do… it’s not easy! I love my job, but I try to make sure my job is not my entire life. I keep up on hobbies outside of work and try different activities when the opportunities come up.

How are you still connected with the University?

The company I work for recruits from the University of Rochester, so I’ve had the opportunity to come back to campus a few times and meet current students in Optics. Also, I try to keep up reading the Rochester Review and any alumni emails that go out. I run into a lot of alumni as well at different industry shows, so it’s nice to keep up with other alums and see what they’re up to.

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What do you do now, and why did you choose this career?

I recently founded Artillery Games, and through the company, we are trying to build the next generation of browser based games.  There are three of us that founded the company, and all of us met by working at Google together.  We’ve raised an investment round already and are really excited about what we’re doing!

Prior to Artillery, I spent four years at Facebook working on partnerships and implementing them technically where I was a partnership engineer.  Likewise, I did something similar at Google for two years prior to that.  After college, I worked as a sales engineer at an optical engineering company for a year before ending up at Google in Silicon Valley.

I do what I do because I love it — I’m the luckiest guy on earth.  Technology is something that I do for fun.  In high school, when cool kids were probably going to parties, I was disassembling my computer or installing Linux.  To me, my job isn’t a job, but something I would do even if I didn’t get paid to do it.  I’m so thankful that the whole Internet thing became popular because I’m not exactly sure what I would have done with my life otherwise.

What activities were you involved in as a student, and what did you gain from them?

I founded a software development firm called Treosoft in college.  We built the now infamous Campus Club Connection.  It was a great learning experience of how to build a startup, even if we weren’t ultimately able to make it successful. Also, I founded the Business and Investment Club and played squash.  All of these were really fun and kept me busy.

What did you do immediately after graduation? How did you decide to take that path?

After Treosoft failed, I had a bit of a difficult couple months.  Ultimately, I took a sales-engineering job at an optics company in Pittsburgh, PA while trying to build another software startup in my free time.  After about a year, my brother referred me to Google and found that there were sales-engineers, so I applied and ended up with an offer a couple weeks later and moved out to the Valley!

What skills, tools, or knowledge from your major have been most useful to you since graduation?

Day to day, I don’t use the specific skills from my degrees, but most important are the tools that we learned of “how to learn.”  Meaning, the incredibly challenging problems we faced in college aren’t any different from trying to build a company.  It just takes patience, resolve, time, and tons of hard work.  My freshman year, I was pretty lazy and unmotivated, but once optics started to get really challenging my sophomore year, it taught me how to step up, learn how to work hard, and love it.

How do you balance your work and personal life?

It’s always a challenge, but I tend to burn-out easily, so I try to give my job 40-50 hours a week of focused time, meaning, completely focused with no distractions, and when I come home, I’m completely separated from the office.  In this way, I’m able to recharge.  I’m probably still “thinking” about things, but that time is for me to decompress and do other things.

Going to the gym and spending time with family have been important things that help keep my life in balance also.  I’d encourage students to develop hobbies in college that they can continue the rest of their lives.  Balance is important.

How are you still connected with the University?

I have hosted alumni get-togethers in the Bay Area in the past, and I have helped interview students.  Now days, I try to attend all of the alumni get togethers.  It’s great to meet all of the bright young students graduating from the alma matar.

What advice do you have for current students?

Tough question … I’d say, “explore everything that you can, and see if you can find something that you love.  Don’t chase money, but chase your passion.  If you can work on something that you love every day, it doesn’t feel like work anymore.  If you happen to become successful at it, that is great, but even if you don’t, you just spent your life working on something that you love!”

Name: Gretchen Bauer
Age: 24
Occupation: Systems Engineer
Education (UR and additional): B.S. in Optics, University of Rochester, 2010
Current city/state of residence: Hoboken, NJ

Why did you choose to attend the University of Rochester?

My older brother and cousin were already students at Rochester when I decided to attend. I actually went to Lehigh my freshman year, and it was not a good fit for me, so I came and spent a weekend with my cousin, Meaghan, at Rochester and found it was the perfect fit for me, so I transferred in the fall of my sophomore year. The positive experiences my family had at Rochester, as well as its great reputation for its Optics program, made it an easy decision.

When and how did you choose your major?

I always loved math and science, so I knew that I wanted to go into the Engineering field. I transferred to Rochester after spending my freshman year at Lehigh where I had taken general engineering courses, which helped me define which field I wanted to go into: Math/Physics. When I came to Rochester my sophomore year, the Optics program was a natural fit for me as it combined my two favorite subjects.

What do you do now and why did you choose this career?

I work as a Systems Engineer for ITT Exelis, a defense contractor. I work on laser based systems that are in the development phase. I really enjoy what I do as I get to work on all aspects of the system, including development, build, and test. I chose this career as it allows me to use my basis of Optics and expand into other areas of engineering at the same time.

What skills, tools, or knowledge from your major have been most useful to you since graduation?

I use a lot of what I learned in the Optics program at Rochester at work. The test equipment I use at work is similar to what I used in labs at Rochester. Also, I do a lot of modeling and data analysis using software tools that I was exposed to during undergrad.

How do you balance your work and personal life?

Since I work in a field where you cannot take your work home with you, it is nice that once I leave work, my work stays at work. I dedicate as much time as I can to building my very young career, and I am very lucky that I ended up in the New York City area surrounded by many of my friends from college. One of those friends is my current roommate, who I can often see outside of work. I have joined local sports leagues in order to maintain a scheduled weekly event that I have outside of work.

How are you still connected with the University?

I often attend Rochester Networking Events and other alumni events the university offers in the NYC area. It’s a great way to catch up with old friends and meet other people that share a love for Rochester.

Name: Dan Gray
Age: 31
Education (UR and additional): B.S. in Optics, University of Rochester, 2002. M.S. in Optics, University of Rochester, 2003. Ph.D in Optics, University of Rochester, 2007.
Current city/state of residence: Niskayuna, NY
Job Title: Lead Optical Engineer
Employer: GE Global Research
Family: Wife and one son

What activities were you involved in as a student and what did you gain from them?

My two biggest activities were The Midnight Ramblers and The Meridian Society.  Through the Ramblers, I was able to help organize and execute three national spring break tours, a variety of on and off campus events, and too many other things to mention.  I learned everything from organization and event planning, large scale logistics (i.e. How do you feed and house 15 guys for 10 days in a place you have never been before?).  Most importantly, how to think, define, and execute on my own.  The Meridian Society gave me a great opportunity to better my speaking and presentations skills in front of large crowds.  And of course, walk backwards!

What did you do immediately after graduation? How did you decide to take that path?

I headed down to Washington, D.C. to start at Areté Associates, a R&D firm doing government research.  They offered me a great job that is very challenging, but also very rewarding.  And traveling to the beach (i.e. Outer Banks, Hawaii, etc.) for great research opportunities isn’t bad either!

What skills, tools, or knowledge from your major have been most useful to you since graduation?

Optics majors know all too well that we take all of these classes that, on the surface, appear to have minimal overlap.  I mean, what does quantum optics, image processing, and fluid-dynamics have in common?  Well, learning how to take a variety of ideas then piecing them together in an unusual way is at the core of my job.

How do you balance your work and professional life?

It is tough.  After graduation it was just me; now I have a family, home, and other commitments.  It took some time, but I now know how to say no to personal and professional commitments and prioritize.  You can’t be everywhere and everything to everybody, but you can choose to make the most of what time you have.

How are you still connected with the University?

I volunteer my time with the Young Alumni Council (YAC) where we help organize and develop alumni programs directed towards alumni 0-10 years out.  I recently served as the committee chair for the 2005 5^th Reunion Council and helped to plan events and fundraising for our class.  I am also involved with URInvolved and volunteer to staff college fairs in my area, interview prospective UR students, and make follow-up phone calls to accepted students.

What advice do you have for current students?

The best advice is what I heard from Stephen Fantone (’79 Optics Ph.D.).  To paraphrase his talk to us: Push yourself to failure now, not later.  Take too many classes and be involved in too many activities and see what you can handle, then push yourself some more.  What is the worst that is going to happen?  You get a bad grade in a class? Take it over.  You have to stay up all night?  Have some coffee.  After college is the wrong time to find out exactly how much you can handle.  The consequences are much more severe: loss of job, family, home, etc. NOW is the perfect time to test yourself!

David Liebers also was recently selected to receive the prestigious Gates Cambridge Scholarship. Supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the scholarship provides one to three years of graduate study at the University of Cambridge, England. Liebers is one of the 30 U.S. students, and is the first University of Rochester student or alumnus to receive this award since the program began in 2001.  After careful consideration, Liebers has accepted the Gates Cambridge Scholarship and will pursue a master’s degree in history and philosophy of science.

Read more about the Lindsey and Watkins here. Read more about Liebers here.

Nathaniel Lindsey

Hannah Watkins

David Liebers (Photo Credit: Joey Kolker)