Adjunct Faculty

Short Biography

Jessica DeGroote Nelson is the Senior Director of Strategic Optical Innovations at Edmund Optics (EO). At EO she is responsible for corporate strategy related to optical components and associated coating technologies. Prior to joining EO, Jessica was the Director of Technology and Strategy at Optimax from 2007 to 2022. She joined Optimax after graduating from the Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester with a BS, MS, and PhD in Optics. She furthered her education with an Executive MBA from the Simon School of Business at the University of Rochester in 2013.

Jessica is active in the technical community as a fellow member of SPIE and a senior member of Optica (formally OSA) as well as a member of the Optics and Electro-Optics Standards Council (OEOSC). Optics education is a strong passion for Jessica, and she currently leads the educational outreach activities for Optica-Rochester Section Optics Suitcase program and chairs the SPIE Education and Outreach committee. In addition to The Institute of Optics, Jessica also teaches a course on Managing Technology, Innovation, and Research at the Saunders School of Business at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) as part of their Executive MBA program.