Samuel Steven earned his BS in Optical Engineering from the University of Rochester, USA, his MS in Technical Entrepreneurship and Management from the Simon Business School and Hajim School of Engineering at the University of Rochester, and his PhD in Optics from The Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester. He is currently an Optical Design Engineer and Research Scientist at Apple Inc., USA.

Steven’s doctoral work focused on the design of ophthalmic imaging instrumentation in which he explored the aberration theory for unobscured reflective relay systems and introduced a generalized Alvarez lens system to achieve tunable correction of chromatic aberrations. He is the recipient of the 2024 Kevin P. Thompson Optical Design Innovator Award from Optica, “For the introduction of nodal aberration theory to the design of ophthalmic imaging instrumentation and the generalization of the Alvarez lens to achieve tunable correction of chromatic aberrations.”