texas a&m university and the colleges of science and engineering will celebrate the official naming of the charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory and space engineering building friday (sept 19) in a 4:30 pm ceremony on the texas a&m campus the event will be held on the second floor of the munnerlyn building located at the corner of university drive and asbury street on the northwest side of the northside parking garage parking will be available in the garage dr munnerlyn who received his bachelors degree in physics from texas a&m in 1962 and a doctorate in optical engineering from the university of rochester in 1969 is considered one of the founding fathers of laser vision correction a revolutionary procedure that has enabled millions of people to have 20/20 vision without glasses or contacts he designed and built the first excimer laser system for vision correction and founded visx inc the leading manufacturer of laser vision correction systems in the united states invited speakers include dr ed j davis 67 president of the texas a&m foundation; dr jeffrey s vitter provost and executive vice president for academics at texas a&m; dr h joseph newton dean of the texas a&m college of science; dr edward s fry professor and head of the texas a&m department of physics; dr david c hyland professor of aerospace engineering at texas a&m; and dr charles r munnerlyn who is a member of the college of sciences academy of distinguished former students the texas a&m university system board of regents approved the naming of the building in recognition of the munnerlyns and their multiple gifts to texas a&m which include a charitable remainder unitrust their gifts have helped to fund three endowed faculty positions in the department of physics chairs in both observational astronomy and quantum optics and a professorship in physics as well as an endowed fund to support departmental programs and activities the department of physics is truly pleased to have a man of dr munnerlyns stature as a former graduate fry said when we were desperate for space in 2004 dr munnerlyn provided critical assistance to acquire this building the astronomical laboratory facilities it houses will provide a perfect match to our new george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy that is under construction in addition to an official name fridays ceremony commemorates the completion of a total renovation of the building formerly home to the texas a&m system facilities planning and construction division under texas a&ms five-year faculty reinvestment program the building will provide astronomical laboratories and other research-related endeavors for the texas a&m astronomy program in addition it will house equipment and facilities pertaining to outreach efforts in the department of aerospace engineering for texas a&m to become a more recognized university it needs programs in research that will attract major interest munnerlyn said by combining my contributions with those of george mitchell and others texas a&m is in a position to become a leader in a field in which i have had an interest all my life over the next 20 years there will be a steady stream of interesting discoveries about the universe texas a&m and the new tools our researchers develop will be a leading factor in those discoveries regarded as one of the nations outstanding scientists and entrepreneurs munnerlyn has been described as a physicist-engineer with a vision-researching vision a reference to his extraordinary contributions to optical research and development he holds more than 30 us patents in the field of optics an enduring fascination that he says began in the seventh grade from about the 7th grade on i had an interest in optical instruments while others might have built model airplanes or ham radio stations munnerlyn said this interest carried through high school and i was lucky enough to have a science teacher who encouraged participation in science fairs and other projects eventually this interest led to a lifelong career as an undergraduate at texas a&m munnerlyn majored in physics and took astronomy courses from professor jack kent a faculty member in the department of mathematics who taught the only optics course offered by the university at the time munnerlyn also worked as an assistant in kents summer astronomy program for high school students and credits his relationship with kent as key to his subsequent graduate work in optics following a stint in the us air force munnerlyn continued his studies at the prestigious institute of optics at rochester receiving his phd in optical engineering in 1969 he remained in the rochester area as head of research and development for tropel a company that designed prototype custom lenses for applications that included xerox copiers polaroid cameras satellites and semiconductor photolithography in the early 1970s he designed the first automatic digital device to measure refractive errors in the eye he also developed a pressure test to detect glaucoma before pioneering his revolutionary laser systems for vision correction in a lesser known but equally groundbreaking achievement munnerlyn also calculated the basic formulas now known as the munnerlyn formula that told ophthalmologists how much corneal tissue to remove in the actual laser vision correction procedure munnerlyn who lives in san jose calif is a 2002 distinguished alumnus of the school of engineering and applied sciences at rochester he was honored this past spring with the rochester distinguished scholar award for his rigorous and innovative scholarly work in 2001 munnerlyn was named engineer of the year by design news magazine that same year he received the stevens honor award in recognition of his pioneering technology and achievements in vision correction in 2007 he was honored with the optical society of americas edwin h land medal for pioneering entrepreneurial creativity that has had a major public impact although retired since 2005 munnerlyn continues to contribute to new technology at visx and advise engineering staff on key projects for more information on the naming ceremony including driving directions and parking please contact the texas a&m college of science at (979) 845-7361 for further information on charitable remainder unitrusts or other giving opportunities through the texas a&m foundation visit http://givingtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu