“As a school, Northwestern Engineering has a strong and rapidly growing effort at the intersection of engineering and the biosciences. We’re also deeply committed to moving our innovations out of the lab and into the market where they can improve lives,” McCormick School of Engineering Dean Christopher Schuh said in recorded remarks. “I’m absolutely delighted by the launch of CEVO, as it perfectly reflects both of these priorities.”

Along with Zhang, the event was emceed by Nicholas Volpe. Volpe, the George W. and Edwina S. Tarry Professor of Ophthalmology and chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, codirects the center with Zhang.

Volpe also stressed CEVO’s interdisciplinary work.

“We’ve set off on that journey (of both campuses working together), and I hope CEVO is a quintessential example of that direction we hope to go in as a university,” Volpe said, “taking all the collaborative effort of our brilliant engineers and our great ophthalmologists and putting it together to deliver better inventions, better care, and a better future for our patients.” 

One person who’s done that in the field is David Huang, professor of ophthalmology and World Family Chair in Ophthalmic Imaging at Oregon Health and Science University. The keynote speaker of the event, Huang delivered the address “Seeing Small and Aiming Big: the Development and Clinical Impact of Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT),” telling the story of how the imaging technology he helped create in 1991 has become the standard for diagnosing and monitoring retinal diseases, optic nerve diseases, and corneal diseases.

Besides developing the machinery, OCT needed to be commercialized to have a true widespread impact, Huang said.

“We’re not motivated by greed. We’re motivated by a desire to help our patients,” Huang said. “That requires commercialization.”