This week Rochester, NY is the center of attention in the Optics world as host of the SPIE OptiFab Conference, the largest optical manufacturing conference and exhibition held in North America. The conference runs Monday October 12th through Thursday October 15th at the Rochester Riverside Convention Center. On Thursday from 1:00-1:30PM several local industry leaders will be holding a tribute to the memory of the late Robert F. Novak, MCC Associate Professor Emeritus, who passed away last year. Bob was highly regarded for his contribution to the Optics Industry and for the many years of dedication to MCC’s Optics Program.
At this tribute, the industry leaders will announce the Robert “Bob” Novak Scholarship Fund, which has been set up to support Optical Technology students’ education in the Rochester area. These leaders include heads of many prominent local and national firms such as Sydor Optics, Corning/Tropel Inc., Optimax, Advanced Glass Inc., Universal Photonics and Edmund Optics. Several of these leaders were enrolled at MCC and had Bob as a professor and mentor. They have kept close contact with MCC and the Optical Technology program throughout the years, and even helped support the program with both monetary donations and equipment.
Bob was an MCC alum himself, and later went on to the University of Arizona. He returned to MCC as Instructor in 1971 and eventually became Department Chair of Engineering Technologies. Including his adjunct work after retirement, Bob contributed over 40 years to MCC, building the most successful 2-year Associates Degree in Optical System Technology in the country. To those who knew Bob, it is no surprise that he impacted so many people in this way.
Matt Fetzner
Engineering Technologies
10/14/2015
Attachments:
 Robert_Novak Fund.docx
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