Our Mission
Our History
The history of OSC is a reflection of our commitment to generate and disseminate the knowledge that is critical to future developments in nearly every field of science and technology.
Jim Mayo, M.S. 1968, was the first student to graduate from the program. The story of how he came to attend Arizona's first optics school is fascinating reading and could only have happened in the chilly political climate of the 1960s.
Since then, OSC has grown and evolved in response to changing national needs and now includes a world-class faculty, an international student body, an undergraduate optical sciences and engineering degree program and distance learning classes that provide graduate certificates and master's degrees. In response to strong industrial demand, the academic program has expanded to include more than 100 graduate and undergraduate level courses. Our graduates are in great demand and are employed by national and international governments, by businesses and by universities.
Along with its teaching programs, research programs at the College of Optical Sciences have evolved and expanded to include a number of partnerships in which our faculty members work closely with scientists in government and industry. Through joint faculty appointments and joint research projects, OSC also engages in cooperative research with several departments on the University of Arizona campus. Laboratory facilities have expanded also to meet the need for research and development in new and exciting areas. We boast numerous laboratories dedicated to teaching at both the graduate and undergraduate levels and continually upgrade these laboratories with state-of-the-art equipment.
Arizona's optics industry has grown along with the college. Today, optics firms in Tucson design, develop and manufacture products ranging from automobile headlights to X-ray machines to high-speed Internet connections. The industry's growth is phenomenal.
The driving force behind this growth is the research capabilities, education programs and inspired leadership at the College of Optical Sciences. The knowledge gained in OSC classrooms and laboratories is being brought to the commercial marketplace to solve major challenges in aerospace, manufacturing, instrumentation, medicine and the physical sciences. |
The
College of Optical Sciences, founded as the University of Arizona Optical Sciences Center, has been shaping
the future since 1964 by offering highest-quality graduate and
undergraduate education, cutting-edge research programs and a solid
commitment to the economic development of the optics industry. 
The concept for the Optical Sciences Center originated in early 1960s when
very few people were being educated in optics, and the shortage of trained
optical scientists was judged to be a national crisis. In response to this great
need, the Air Force Institute of Technology, together with the Needs in Optics
Committee of the Optical Society of America and Dr. Aden Meinel, Director of
Steward Observatory at the University of Arizona, drafted a proposal to set up
an optical sciences center. In 1964, with
financial support from the University of Arizona Foundation and a promise of
research contracts from the U.S. Air Force, Aden Meinel, now director of the new
center, rented temporary quarters on the University of Arizona campus,
brought faculty members on board and opened our doors to OSC’s first
students.