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Maitenaz: Engineer, academician
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Your report from Optometry’s Meeting in Philadelphia noted that Bernard Maitenaz was the recipient of the Apollo Award, “the highest honor awarded to the general public” by the American Optometric Association (“AOA presents awards at Optometry’s Meeting,” August 2014).
Bernard Maitenaz is by no means one of the general public. He is an optical engineer, one of the finest, and an academician.
He started his career teaching at the Institute of Optics, the University of Paris in Orsay, France, in the late 1960s. I had the distinction of being one of his students. One of his assignments was to devise a new type of projection lensmeter.
I still remember his first “Varilux” lenses worn by one brave optics laboratory technician. Varilux lenses today have evolved so much since then and, thanks to Maitenaz, have lent this nomenclature to this technology of progressive lenses. For quite some time Varilux equaled progressive-addition lenses, high quality lenses that stand apart from others.
Past optical engineer
Institute of Optics
Orsay, France