James Wynne

Wife: Barbara J. (Silverberg) Wynne, wed in 1964
Barbara is from Rochester, NY. She went to college at Boston University, where she majored in Psychology and Education. Her first day at B.U. in 1961, she met Susan Diamond, a "gem" of a girl who knew me from the previous year and who made the match. On our first date, I was smitten. But it took me some time to propose marriage. We were married on August 22, 1964. The ensuing 50+ years have been fabulous.

Barbara taught 2nd grade in the Boston area while I was going through graduate school. After our second child started college in 1994, Barbara worked as an office manager at a Temple and later at a Music School. She is now retired.

Son: Keith A. Wynne, born 1974
Keith attended University of Delaware, where he majored in Early Childhood Education and Family Studies. After college, he taught English in Japan for two years, the second year as a kindergarten teacher to Japanese children in an all-English language school. Since returning from Japan, he has taught all grades of elementary school. He has a Masters in International Education from Columbia Teachers College and recently earned a Masters in School Administration from Baruch College. He is currently serving as a STEM Instructional Lead in the NY City Department of Education, based in Brooklyn North's Office of Field Support.
In 2012, Keith wed Theresa. She gave birth to a son, Oliver, on 12/18/2013, and a daughter, Charlotte, on 7/21/2016. Keith's parents know that he is a great father.

Daughter: Alexis E. (Wynne) Mogul, born 1976
Alexis attended Vassar College, where she majored in Physics (a "chip of the old block"). After college, she worked at Lawrence Livermore Lab, east of San Francisco. Then she attended Cornell University, where she earned a Masters in Applied and Engineering Physics.

In 2004, she married Douglas Mogul, who had been pursuing her since 1992 in high school. They moved to San Francisco in 2006, where Doug was trained in Pediatrics at Stanford University Medical Center. They now live to Baltimore, where Doug is on the staff of Johns Hopkins Children's Center . Alexis is the Co-Managing Editor, Journal of Neuro-Opthamology, a web-based, peer-reviewed journal.

Grandchildren: Amelia and Jonah Mogul, twins, born 12/5/2006.
They are terrific (and delicious) children (and I'm not the least bit biased). Barbara and I love to spend time with them, and Baltimore brings them closer to us than San Francisco. (Check out their pictures below)

Oliver McMahon Wynne, born 12/18/2013!!!!!!
Charlotte Crotty Wynne, born 7/21/2016!!!!!!

Harvard College, B.A. - 1964
Harvard University, Ph. D., Applied Physics - 1969

Lewis Love, my high school physics teacher, turned me on to physics as a possible career. During the summer of 1963, I took a job on Long Island working with lasers, which had been invented in May, 1960, just before we graduated from high school. At the end of the summer, I decided to go for a doctorate in physics and also propose to Barbara, both without first asking my parents permission. So I finally "grew up" at that summer.

My Ph. D. thesis at Harvard was in the area of nonlinear optics, a field that emerged with the invention of the laser. My thesis advisor, Nicolaas Bloembergen, later was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for being the "father" of nonlinear optics.

Fresh with my doctorate, I joined IBM Research, where I have been employed for ~50 years. For my first assignment, I worked at the IBM Zurich Research Lab in Ruschlikon, Switzerland, a suburb of Zurich. There I continued to investigate nonlinear optics.

Life in Europe was fantastic. Things cost ~1/4 of what they cost in the United States. We could eat at fine restaurants for $2/person. We could ski all day for $4/person. In Austria, we could stay in a chalet/hotel for $4/night, with a private bath and breakfast. Those were the "good old days."

During the week, I worked at IBM and Barbara planned our weekend trip. We traveled to Spain, Italy, France, Austria, Germany, The Netherlands, England, and everywhere in Switzerland. I estimate that I skied on 50 different days during my two winters in Switzerland.

Upon returning to the US in January, 1971, I joined the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY, where I have worked ever since. We moved to our home in Mt. Kisco in 1973, and are still there.

At IBM, I continued to work in laser physics research through the early 1990s. Since then, I have had an administrative job with the office of the Director of Research. I spend a major part of my time recruiting IBMers to volunteer for technical education outreach, i.e., visiting local schools to get kids aware of and interested in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM), with the goal being to stock the pipeline of future engineers and scientists.

As for my work in laser physics, my highest impact achievement was to co-invent excimer laser surgery, the foundation for laser refractive surgery (LASIK, PRK) -
National Inventors Hall of Fame profile . My IBM colleagues and I have received many awards for this discovery, including the National Medal of Technology and Innovation (presented to me by President Obama at the White House on February 1, 2013) and the National Academy of Engineering's (NAE) Russ Prize (presented to me at the NAE Awards Dinner and Ceremony on February 19,2013) , but the best personal reward was that my son, who was myopic and astigmatic, had the PRK procedure in 2006 and now sees 20/15 in each eye.

April 16, 2015 video of me entitled LASIK Surgery: How IBM's Dr. James Wynne Discovered It

2010 marked the 50th anniversary, not only of our high school class' graduation, but the invention of the laser. Several professional science societies organized a celebration: LaserFest . See my LaserFest Profile as one of the "Faces in Laser Science."

In Jan. 2011, I was interviewed during a laser science and engineering conference in San Francisco.
8-minute-long video of that interview

In Oct. 2015, I was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering. Two other IBMers who were also inducted are Ginni Rometty, IBM CEO, and Ghavam Shahidi, my IBM Research colleague.

In May 2018, the National Inventors Hall of Fame(NIHF) annual induction ceremony was held at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC. The NIHF created a "cartoon" image of me as a "superhero" for my invention of excimer laser surgery. I uploaded this image to my profile. Take a look.

Thanksgiving 2021: 40 years ago, the day after Thanksgiving, a sample of leftover Thanksgiving turkey opened the door to LASIK and PRK. IBM Research Communications interviewed me and published this Thanksgiving Day blog

One more thing: In 2005, Les Paul was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for his invention of the solid body electric guitar. For the occasion, I composed lyrics about the 2005 inductees, to the melody of Les and Mary Ford's hit song "How High the Moon." At the induction event, Les joined the combo providing background music for the event, and they played "How High the Moon" while I and many of the other attendees sang my lyrics - see a picture of us in my photo album. Les passed away on August 13, 2009, at the age of 94. His influence on modern music is staggering.

Tennis - since 1952; my hand-to-eye coordination and my serve have never been better; my speed afoot leaves a lot to be desired; but I now bend my knees, the failure to do so being the "Achilles Heel" of my tennis youth
Squash rackets (until ~10 years ago) - I was a member of our varsity team that was the national champion in 1963-64. But I can't really brag too much, because my roommate, Vic Niederhoffer, who played #1 on the varsity for three years, was the intercollegiate champion, won the U.S. Nationals on 5 different occasions, and even won the North American Open in 1975. To learn more about Vic, see Victor Niederhoffer
Reading:
My favorite book of fiction is The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, even though I mostly disagree with her philosophy, i.e., I am a democrat, NOT a libertarian.
I recently reread The Crash of '79, by Paul Erdman, a fictional account of massive misbehavior, i.e. bad loans by big banks, compounded by a misguided war to take over the middle eastern oil fields. It is a great read, with an eerie foresight about the worldwide financial crisis launched in 2008.
I very recently read 2018's
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carryrou, about the rise and fall of the firm Theranos, the multibillion-dollar biotech startup headed by Elizabeth Holmes. It serves as a warning to not be taken in by something that seems too good to be true.
Travel - lived in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Zurich; honeymooned in Bar Harbor, Maine; visited our grandchildren in San Francisco many times, and now visit them in Baltimore; visited our son while he lived in Japan; love to visit Sedona, AZ; visited Istanbul in May, 2011; visited Berlin, Prague, and Paris in May, 2013; most memorable short vacation trip: Florence, Italy.
Listening to music - Beethoven, Saint-Saens, Tchiakovsky, especially his violin concerto performed by Jascha Heifetz with Fritz Reiner conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Favorite movies - Lady and the Tramp & Fantasia, especially the
"Dance of the Hours" ballet featuring dancing hippos, ostriches, elephants, and alligators.

In the past, I served on the Board of Directors of the American Physical Society, the Optical Society of America. the National Inventors Hall of Fame. and as an alternate (for the IBM Director of Research) on the Board of the New York Hall of Science, a hands-on science museum in Flushing Meadows Park, built during the 1964-65 World Fair.

Thoughts on the completed 50th Reunion:
I enjoyed the Reunion more than any one else. I feel like I was in labor for the past 5 years and was gratified to "give birth" to a very exceptional "baby" named "50th Reunion." Being there made me feel 50 years younger. All of you who attended were part of my "Fountain of Youth!"

After living in Mt. Kisco, NY, for 48 years, my wife and I moved to a suburb of Baltimore, MD, on May 13, 2021. We live near our daughter and her family.

I'm quite fond of Baltimore, which is where my IBM colleagues and I met two ophthalmologist at a conference in 1983. They were the ones who recognized that our invention of excimer laser surgery could be used to reshape the cornea without producing collateral damage. Today, we have LASIK and PRK. The meeting of the minds happened in Baltimore!

North

Kensington School - last part of 1st grade, 2nd grade - Mrs. White
Saddle Rock School - 3rd grade, 4th grade - Miss Jansen, 5th grade - Mrs. Colvin, 6th grade, Ms. Watkins