1996 OSA President Duncan Moore, the Rudolf and Hilda Kingslake Professor of Optical Engineering, at the University of Rochester, USA, earned his Ph.D. at the University of Rochester in 1974.  Moore an expert in gradient-index optics, computer-aided design, and the manufacture of optical systems also served as associate director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy during the Clinton Administration.

His extensive experience in the academic, research, business, and government arenas of science and technology. He has led to positions such as Vice Provost for Entrepreneurship at Rochester, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Infotonics Technology Center Inc., an industry, academia, and government partnership to foster cutting-edge research, prototyping of new technology, and economic development in Upstate New York State. He was a visiting Professor at Stanford University, where he has worked on its Center for Longevity to create an international, interdisciplinary research and teaching network focused on solving fundamental physical and social problems associated with extended life expectancy.

Moore chaired the successful Hubble Independent Optical Review Panel organized in 1990 to determine the correct prescription of the Hubble Space Telescope. In addition, Moore is the founder and former president of Gradient Lens Corporation of Rochester, New York, the manufacturer of the high-quality, low-cost Hawkeye boroscope.

Moore has received numerous awards for his achievements including election to the National Academy of Engineering, the Science and Technology Award of the Greater Rochester Metro Chamber of Commerce, the Distinguished Inventor of the Year Award of the Rochester Intellectual Property Law Association, the Gradient-Index Award of the Japanese Applied Physics Society, and an Honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Maine.  Moore also received the National Engineering Award of the American Association of Engineering Societies and twice was designated Engineer of the Year by the Rochester Engineering Society.

He received OSA’s Edwin H. Land Medal in 2009 for his invention of and leadership at a worldwide level of research and development in gradient-index optics along with his extensive entrepreneurial efforts on behalf of education in optics. In 2001, he received the OSA’s Robert E. Hopkins Leadership Award for technical, educational and service contributions to the worldwide optics community and for contributions in the public-policy arena during distinguished service to the government of the United States of America. In 1984, Moore was elected an OSA Fellow.

He continues to serve on OSA's Presidential Advisory Committee.