Robert (Bob) Parks After receiving a BA and MA in physics from Ohio Wesleyan University and Williams College, respectively, Bob started work in 1967 at the Hawkeye Plant at Eastman Kodak Company as an optical engineer. After two years he went on to Itek Corp. where he was an optical test engineer and, among other things, aligned the 6 cameras for the S-190 Space Lab project. From there he went to work for Frank Cooke, Inc. where he got his hands dirty learning how to make optics. This gave him the background to become manager of the optical shop at the  Optical Science Center at the Univ. of Arizona in 1976. He was there for 12 years and it gave him the opportunity to write numerous papers about projects in the shop and the optical fabrication and testing techniques used there, some of which are available on this site.

He left the University in 1989 to start consulting about optical fabrication and testing. One of his earlier assignments was being hired by the Allen Board of Investigation for the Hubble Telescope to be in residence at HDOS for the duration of the investigation. He was instrumental in finding the source of the error and helped write the report of the Committee. In 1992 he formed Optical Perspectives Group, LLC (OPG)as a partnership with Bill Kuhn , then a PhD student at Optical Sciences.

While still at Optical Sciences Bob became involved in  Optical Standards and for twenty years was one of the US representatives to the ISO Technical Committee 172 on Optics and Optical Instruments. For two years he was the Chairman of the ISO Subcommittee 1 for Fundemental Optical standards.

Bob is a member of the, Optical Society of America , a Fellow and past Board member of  The International Society of Optical Engineering and a member and past President of the American Society for Precision Engineering.

He is author or co-author of over 100 publications about optical fabrication and testing, and co-inventor on 6 U.S. Patents.