Dwight Duston

Dwight Duston has pursued a diversified 35-year professional career as a research scientist, technology manager, university professor, inventor and entrepreneur. He has managerial and technical expertise in a wide range of technologies in multiple industries, including defense, aerospace, bio-medical lasers, medical imaging, displays and ophthalmics.

He started as a research scientist at the US Naval Research Laboratory in the area of plasma physics, radiation, laser fusion and nuclear weapons simulation, and has more than 25 technical publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Advancing to technology management mid-career, Dr. Duston is former director of the Technology Division for the U.S. Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (now, the US Missile Defense Agency), popularly known as the “Star Wars” program. At the Pentagon, he managed research and development programs in structural and electronic materials, optics, lasers, particle beams, high-speed processing, imaging sensors, power, and propulsion. His office launched over 15 space missions during his tenure, including Clementine, the first space probe to discover ice on the moon. While at SDIO, he also managed the Congressionally-mandated Free Electron Laser Medical Program, the Small Business Innovation Research program, and SDI’s Technology Transfer Office. He has served on advisory panels to several other agencies, including the National Institutes of Health (digital mammography), NASA, DARPA and the Departments of Energy and Commerce.

Dwight retired from government service in 1998 to pursue a career in in the private sector. He joined The Egg Factory, a high-tech start-up, as CTO, in 1999 and worked on several inventions in a number of industries, including ophthalmics, information displays, solar photo-voltaic energy, adaptive optics, and electro-optics. He helped spin off PixelOptics Inc., the first company to commercialize electronic spectacle lenses, and served as Senior VP for Research & Technology until 2009. At another Egg Factory spin-off, eVision LLC, he managed the development of tunable electronic lenses for camera optics and cell phones, an electro-optic ophthalmic refractometer, and sun steering electro-optics for solar concentrators. He is listed as an inventor on 35 U.S. patents, with dozens more overseas. He taught physics as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in Malaysia, and was Associate Professor of Management & Technology at the University of Maryland.

Presently, he consults for aerospace companies, the U.S. Department of Defense and assists start-up companies in the biomedical industry. He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in physics from the University of Michigan.