Jessica Degroote Nelson

Jessica holds a bachelor’s, master's and Ph.D. in optics from University of Rochester’s Institute of Optics. Jessica also earned an MBA from the Simon Business School at the University of Rochester, while working full-time at Optimax. She is also currently an adjunct faculty at The Institute of Optics teaching an undergraduate and graduate course on Optical Fabrication Materials and Testing.

She started her career at Optimax after graduating from the University of Rochester. During the past ten years at Optimax, Jessica has not only expanded and improved the internal optical manufacturing processes, but has also won several Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awards, funded by NASA and the Department of Defense (DoD), leading a team of researchers on these initiatives.