The excimer laser was developed at IBM to etch computer microchips. Its extreme precision with negligible damage to adjacent tissue made it a very attractive tool for other applications. In 1983, ophthalmologist Stephen L. Trokel, M.D., in cooperation with physicist R. Srinivasan, applied it to corneal tissue in a New York laboratory. The first sighted eye was treated with the excimer laser on January 14, 1987.