Charles Munnerlyn

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Charles Munnerlyn
CharlesJudithMunnerlyn2009 (cropped).jpg
Charles Munnerlyn, 2009
Born1940 (age 8384)
Nationality Flag of the United States.svg United States
Citizenship United States
Alma mater Texas A&M University, University of Rochester
Scientific career
Fields Medical physics and medical optics

Charles Munnerlyn (born 1940 in Shreveport, LA) is an American optical engineer. He constructed the first working excimer laser system for vision correction in 1985, and also developed the Munnerlyn Formula that dictates the amount of corneal tissue to be removed by the laser to correct vision disorders such as myopia and astigmatism. Munnerlyn is the founder of VISX, Incorporated, once the world's largest manufacturer of laser-based vision correction (LVC) systems. VISX is now owned by Abbott Laboratories.

Contents

Biography

Charles Ray Munnerlyn received his bachelor's degree in physics from Texas A&M University in 1962 and a doctorate in optical engineering from the University of Rochester in 1969.

Career

Following a stint in the U.S. Air Force, Munnerlyn continued his studies at the Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester, receiving his Ph.D. in optical engineering in 1969. He remained in the Rochester area as head of research and development for Tropel, a company that designed prototype custom lenses for applications that included Xerox copiers, Polaroid cameras, satellites and semiconductor photolithography. In the early 1970s, he designed the first automatic digital device to measure refractive errors in the eye. He also developed a pressure test to detect glaucoma before pioneering his laser systems for vision correction. [1] Munnerlyn holds more than 30 U.S. patents in the field of optics.

Munnerlyn calculated the basic formula, now known as the "Munnerlyn Formula", that told ophthalmologists how much corneal tissue to remove in the actual laser vision correction procedure. [2] With collaborator Terry Clapham, an electrical engineer, they left Coherent in 1983 to continue developing a YAG laser design for vision correction. They secured financial backing from a company called CooperVision, which wanted the rights to sell the system when it was successfully developed. In 1987, Munnerlyn and Clapham purchased the excimer laser technology from CooperVision and started their own company, VISX, Incorporated. They took VISX public in 1989, raising $4 million, then merged with competitor Taunton Technologies in 1990. By 2002, about two thirds of laser vision correction procedures in the U.S. were performed with VISX equipment. In December 2004, Advanced Medical Optics announced plans to purchased VISX for $1.27 billion. [3] Munnerlyn retired in 2005.

He is an avid amateur astronomer, a member of the Board of Trustees for the University of Rochester, and on the Advisory Board of the Foundation of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. [4] The Charles R. '62 & Judith G. Munnerlyn Astronomical Laboratory and Space Sciences Engineering Building [5] at Texas A&M University, dedicated in September 2009 is named in their honor. He has also endowed a number of professorships at Texas A&M University including the Mitchell/Heep/Munnerlyn Endowed Chair in Observational Astronomy, and Munnerlyn-Heep Endowed Chair in Quantum Optics.

Marriage and children

He is married to Judith G. Munnerlyn. They have four children, John, Audrey, Stewart, and Patrick.

Awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Farsightedness</span> Eye condition in which light is focused behind instead of on the retina

Far-sightedness, also known as long-sightedness, hypermetropia, and hyperopia, is a condition of the eye where distant objects are seen clearly but near objects appear blurred. This blur is due to incoming light being focused behind, instead of on, the retina due to insufficient accommodation by the lens. Minor hypermetropia in young patients is usually corrected by their accommodation, without any defects in vision. But, due to this accommodative effort for distant vision, people may complain of eye strain during prolonged reading. If the hypermetropia is high, there will be defective vision for both distance and near. People may also experience accommodative dysfunction, binocular dysfunction, amblyopia, and strabismus. Newborns are almost invariably hypermetropic, but it gradually decreases as the newborn gets older.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LASIK</span> Corrective ophthalmological surgery

LASIK or Lasik, commonly referred to as laser eye surgery or laser vision correction, is a type of refractive surgery for the correction of myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism. LASIK surgery is performed by an ophthalmologist who uses a femtosecond laser or a microkeratome to create a corneal flap to expose the corneal stroma and then an excimer laser to reshape the corneal stroma in order to improve visual acuity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Refractive surgery</span> Surgery to treat common vision disorders

Refractive surgery is an optional eye surgery used to improve the refractive state of the eye and decrease or eliminate dependency on glasses or contact lenses. This can include various methods of surgical remodeling of the cornea (keratomileusis), lens implantation or lens replacement. The most common methods today use excimer lasers to reshape the curvature of the cornea. Refractive eye surgeries are used to treat common vision disorders such as myopia, hyperopia, presbyopia and astigmatism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intraocular lens</span> Lens implanted in the eye to treat cataracts or myopia

An Intraocular lens (IOL) is a lens implanted in the eye usually as part of a treatment for cataracts or for correcting other vision problems such as short sightedness and long sightedness; a form of refractive surgery. If the natural lens is left in the eye, the IOL is known as phakic, otherwise it is a pseudophakic lens. Both kinds of IOLs are designed to provide the same light-focusing function as the natural crystalline lens. This can be an alternative to LASIK, but LASIK is not an alternative to an IOL for treatment of cataracts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phakic intraocular lens</span> Lens implanted in eye in addition to the natural lens

A phakic intraocular lens (PIOL) is an intraocular lens that is implanted surgically into the eye to correct refractive errors without removing the natural lens. Intraocular lenses that are implanted into eyes after the eye's natural lens has been removed during cataract surgery are known as pseudophakic.

Johnson & Johnson Vision (JJV) is a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson and is composed of two divisions, Johnson & Johnson Surgical Vision and Johnson & Johnson Vision Care. Services include Intraocular lenses, laser vision correction systems, phacoemulsification systems, viscoelastic, Microkeratomes and related products used in cataract and refractive surgery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Institute of Optics</span>

The Institute of Optics is a department and research center at the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York. The institute grants degrees at the bachelor's, master's and doctoral levels through the University of Rochester School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Since its founding, the institute has granted over 2,500 degrees in optics, making up about half of the degrees awarded in the field in the United States. The institute is made up of 20 full-time professors, 12 professors with joint appointments in other departments, 10 adjunct professors, 5 research scientists, 11 staff, about 170 undergraduate students and about 110 graduate students.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Avi Wallerstein</span> Canadian ophthalmologist and laser eye surgeon

Avi Wallerstein is a Canadian ophthalmologist and laser eye surgeon who specializes in surgical vision correction, also termed refractive eye surgery. He practises in Montreal and Toronto. In 2001, he co-founded LASIK MD with Mark Cohen. LASIK MD is Canada's largest provider of laser refractive surgery, performing over 60,000 procedures a year. He is one of only 14 certified CLasik instructors in North America.

Akhlesh Lakhtakia is Evan Pugh University Professor and Charles Godfrey Binder Professor of engineering science and mechanics at the Pennsylvania State University. His research focuses on electromagnetic fields in complex materials, such as sculptured thin films, chiral materials, bianisotropy and industrially scalable bioreplication, an emerging form of engineered biomimicry applied to harvesting of solar energy and pest eradication. His technique for visualization of latent fingerprints was covered in the NOVA documentary series "Forensics on Trial".

The Munnerlyn Formula is the theoretical formula discovered by Charles Munnerlyn which gives the depth an excimer laser will need to ablate during LASIK surgery or similar medical interventions. The formula states that the depth of the ablation per diopter of refractive change is equal to the square of the diameter of the optical ablation zone measured in millimeters, divided by three. For example, to change refraction by 4 diopters with an optical zone of 3 mm would require ablation of 12 μm. As the depth of ablation is proportional to the square of the optical zone, changing the refraction by 4 diopters but with an optical zone of 6 mm would require a much deeper ablation of approximately 48 μm. The ablation depth does not include the transition zone of the surgery.

Muhammad Suhail Zubairy, HI, SI, FPAS, is a University Distinguished Professor as of 2014 in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the Texas A&M University and is the inaugural holder of the Munnerlyn-Heep Chair in Quantum Optics.

Stephen Updegraff, M.D., FACS is an American refractive surgeon best known for his early involvement in, and contributions to, LASIK. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, a board-certified member of the American Board of Ophthalmology, a founding member of the American College of Ophthalmic Surgeons, and a member of the International Society of Refractive Surgery, the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, and the Pine Ridge Eye Study Society. Updegraff currently serves as the medical director of Updegraff Vision in St. Petersburg, Florida.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gholam A. Peyman</span> Iranian-American ophthalmologist and retina surgeon known for inventing LASIK eye surgery

Gholam A. Peyman is an Iranian American ophthalmologist, retina surgeon, and inventor. He is best known for his invention of LASIK eye surgery, a vision correction procedure designed to allow people to see clearly without glasses. He was awarded the first US patent for the procedure in 1989.

Laser blended vision is a laser eye treatment which is used to treat presbyopia or other age-related eye conditions. It can be used to help people that simply need reading glasses, and also those who have started to need bifocal or varifocal spectacle correction due to ageing changes in the eye. It can be used for people who are also short-sighted (myopia) or long-sighted (hyperopia) and who also may have astigmatism.

Jeffery J. Machat MD, FRCSC, DABO is an ophthalmologist in the United States and Canada specializing in surgical vision correction better known as refractive eye surgery. He is most known for being the Co-Founder of TLC Laser Eye Centers with Elias Vamvakas in 1993. The first TLC clinic was located in Windsor, Canada and treated thousands of patients from across all of North America. The clinic also hosted thousands of eye care specialists trying to learn about LASIK and PRK prior to US FDA approval which came three years later. Together Vamvakas and Machat built an incredible company of 83 LASIK clinics through both organic growth and strategic acquisition by May 2002 to become the largest provider of LASIK in North America. Dr. Machat pioneered not only LASIK but the concept of Optometric Comanagement throughout the 1990s, helping build a TLC network of over 14,000 referring optometrists by 2000. In 2005-2006, Machat spent time in Europe working to build Optical Express, helping David Moulsdale, owner and Founder, to transform the company from 300 optical stores into the leading provider of LASIK vision correction in Europe with 55 clinics in the span of 2 years.

Peter S. Hersh is an American ophthalmologist, researcher, and specialist in LASIK eye surgery, keratoconus, and diseases of the cornea. He co-authored the article in the journal Ophthalmology that presented the results of the study that led to the first approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the excimer laser for the correction of nearsightedness in the United States. Hersh was also medical monitor of the study that led to approval of corneal collagen crosslinking for the treatment of keratoconus. He was the originator, in 2015, of CTAK for keratoconus, patent holder, and co-developer.

The eye, like any other optical system, suffers from a number of specific optical aberrations. The optical quality of the eye is limited by optical aberrations, diffraction and scatter. Correction of spherocylindrical refractive errors has been possible for nearly two centuries following Airy's development of methods to measure and correct ocular astigmatism. It has only recently become possible to measure the aberrations of the eye and with the advent of refractive surgery it might be possible to correct certain types of irregular astigmatism.

A corneal inlay is a device which is surgically implanted in the cornea of the eye as a treatment for presbyopia. Successful installation results in reducing dependence on reading glasses, so that the user can more easily engage in everyday tasks such as using a mobile phone, reading store shelf prices and working on a computer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Noel Alpins</span> Australian ophthalmologist

Noel Alpins is an Australian ophthalmologist who developed the Alpins method of astigmatism analysis used in refractive, corneal, and cataract surgery, used in the research of LASIK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Marshall (eye laser scientist)</span> British medical scientist and inventor

John Marshall MBE, FMedSci, PhD, DSc, FRCPath, FRSB, FRCOphth(Hon), FRCOptom (Hon), FARVO is a British medical scientist and inventor. Currently he is the Frost Professor of Ophthalmology at the Institute of Ophthalmology UCL and Emeritus Professor King's College London. He is a pioneer of laser eye surgery.

References

  1. Design News 02.26.01 - ENGINEER OF THE YEAR/CHARLES R. MUNNERLYN
  2. Munnerlyn CR, Koons SJ, Marshall J. Photorefractive keratectomy: a technique for laser refractive surgery. J Cataract Refract Surg. 1988 Jan;14(1):46–52
  3. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3921/is_200412/ai_n9472928/ [ bare URL ]
  4. Our Leadership Archived July 4, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  5. "Texas A&M Honors Munnerlyns in Building Naming Ceremony | Texas A&M University, College of Science". Archived from the original on 2009-10-08. Retrieved 2010-01-30.
  6. Design News – DN Named Documents – Engineer of the Year Hall of Fame Archived 2010-01-29 at the Wayback Machine
  7. "Office of the Provost: Distinguished Scholar Medal". Archived from the original on 2010-06-15. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
  8. http://www.aggienetwork.com/DistinguishedAlumni2009/ [ permanent dead link ]