News

Michael Peres reflects on his 39 years at RIT
After 39 years of teaching in RIT’s School of Photographic Arts and Sciences, Professor Michael Peres says that he is most proud of the relationships he’s made with his students and colleagues over the years. As he looks toward retirement on June 30, he fondly recalls the memories he’s made on campus. Peres has made many contributions to the College of Art and Design and the larger RIT community since joining the university in 1986—and his time at RIT was marked by many “firsts.” Peres was a founding member of the RIT Big Shot team and worked on the first Big Shot in 1987. A book he co-produced, called Images from Science, was the first publication of the Cary Graphic Arts Press, now known as RIT Press. He also taught RIT’s first distance-learning course in photography, long before the advent of Zoom and other tools that make distance learning more seamless. Peres was the recipient of the RIT Eisenhart Award for Outstanding Teaching in 2003, which recognizes faculty members who excel at teaching and enhance student learning. He also received the College of Art and Design’s Gitner Prize and the Frank J. Romano Prize for Publishing Entrepreneurship. Another highlight of his career, he says, was serving as editor-in-chief for the Focal Encyclopedia of Photography 4th edition. Below are some reflections Peres shared about his time at RIT. How have you grown as an educator since you started at RIT? Peres joked that while he had two children at home, his campus family included the many students who sought his guidance and support over the years. Photo Credit: Michael Peres My teaching at the beginning of my career was very fact based. But with experience, I started to realize there were so many more important lessons that needed to come from my being in the classroom. Lessons about working with others, problem solving, critical thinking, and professional practices. It wasn’t just about the specific subject itself, but about the personal learning. Seeing the evolution from an 18-year-old starting college to earning a Ph.D. or M.D. or growing into leadership roles has been a great gift for me. But, I think I’ve learned more from my 39 years here than I might have taught. My fascination with photographing snowflakes was inspired by a student named Emily Marshall, who graduated in 2003. She saw an exhibition by Wilson Bentley, a snowflake photographer, and came back to campus saying she wanted to photograph a snowflake. I had never photographed a snowflake and, initially, I was a little hesitant. But I reached out to her the next day, and we set up a microscope in the breezeway between Booth and Gannett halls. It didn't work out at all, but we learned an awful lot. Now, over 20 years later, I am still doing it. What are some of your fondest memories connecting with RIT’s photography community through the Big Shot? Every Big Shot was an adventure, and it was a perpetual challenge to make Big Shot bigger, more interesting, and more inclusive every year. A truly notable moment was bringing the Big Shot to the Intrepid Museum. Going to New York City to talk with the management team of the Intrepid was exciting, but they told us we had to rent out the ship for $28,000 if we wanted to make a photo of the ship. We came back to Rochester like dogs with our tails between our legs but, with the help of Ed Lincoln (director of Alumni Relations in 1998), we were able to photograph the museum and we had this massive alumni afterparty. President Simone was there with the president of Fuji Film, and CNN featured us. After making the Big Shot photo at the Intrepid Museum on Oct. 28, 1999, CNN produced a story about the project and interviewed Peres and other members of the team. Another Big Shot that was exceptional was when we photographed the Royal Palace in Stockholm. The Big Shot photo became the national Swedish Christmas card for two years. I have a signed card from King Carl Gustaf and Queen Silvia. After our visit, they put lighting on the outside of the palace. They’d never seen the palace lit at night like it was lit for the Big Shot picture. It’s interesting to think that we inspired change at the Royal Palace. An interesting evolution we worked through was the transition from film to digital photography. In the earliest days of the Big Shot, we had to run home, develop the negatives, and then make prints. Then, we would run the prints to the television stations and the newspapers while they were still wet to try to get on the 11 p.m. news or in the morning paper. Hand delivering prints was a fun way to distribute our work. Now, we make a picture and 5 minutes after the picture is done, it's distributed all around the world. What are your post-RIT plans? I’m giving myself the year to not put any pressure on myself or make commitments. It feels nice to just dwell on what’s happened at RIT and celebrate the future. I’ve made photographs since 1972, so I have a massive collection of slides, negatives, digital files, prints, and all these things that need attention. I’m going to spend the first year figuring out what I want to do with those things. I have two beautiful grandchildren and we’re going to do some traveling. I’ll take my dog for long walks and hang out with him. I’m on a committee at the Eastman Museum that I go to monthly, and I volunteer for the Friends of the Public Market by designing their newsletter. I also volunteer at a nonprofit called InterVol and I go there to sort unused medical supplies and equipment that is redistributed to developing countries. I find great joy in contributing my time and energy to important work like that.
Robert Pearson retires from microelectronic engineering program
Robert Pearson helped make history when RIT began its microelectronic engineering program in the early 1980s. An RIT alumnus of the electrical engineering program and MicroE’s first faculty hire, Pearson reflected on some of that history—and his place in it—before retiring this summer after more than 40 years. Pearson started his RIT story with highlights that included following in the footsteps of his father, Milton ’64 (Imaging science), combining electrical engineering and imaging science and coming to campus in 1976 as a student-athlete. He took advantage of early co-op experiences at Fairchild Semiconductor International in Maine and later its R&D center in California. He eventually worked for the company after graduation, before bringing a combination of academics and industry skills to teaching. He saw great potential in the degree program, in the growing semiconductor industry, and RIT’s commitment to building what he would describe as a first-of-its-kind program, recognized by peer universities and industry for its skilled semiconductor graduates. How did you come to teach in the microelectronics engineering program? I started here in fall ’76 and played soccer. Before my first co-op I didn’t have a resume and went over to see sports information director, Roger Dykes. I made copies, sent it out, and got a co-op at Fairchild in Maine because Roger typed up my resume. When I came back, I had classes with Lynn Fuller in semiconductor physics and thick film integrated circuits. He said, ‘I’ve got some equipment here, do you want to try to make some transistors? Just come in and start working. But you’ve got to write it up as lab reports.’ A buddy and I made the first photo masks, capacitors, solar cells, and transistors in 1979. My master’s thesis was a formalized version of all those lab reports. It is basically what we teach in our sophomore course, Integrated Circuit Technology now. It has survived the test of time. I was working at Fairchild Semiconductors after graduation. When I visited RIT at Thanksgiving ’82, they had just started the microelectronics engineering program in September. Lynn Fuller, founder of the program, said, ‘I don’t have any faculty—it’s just me and 60 freshmen. Would you like to be a teacher?’ I asked, ‘When?’ He said, ‘January.’ So I went back to Maine, quit my job and moved back home with my wife. What are some significant milestones in the program you were involved with since it began? When I started teaching, we were in a couple of crowded rooms on the third floor of the engineering building. People were interested in the semiconductor field, and the country was very much interested in re-shoring—just like now. Lynn put together a proposal for a new building. I think the projected cost at the time was a measly $5 million. By 1985, we were ready to open the building, and who do we invite—Jack Kilby, inventor of the integrated circuit. And we gave him an honorary Ph.D. even before he was awarded the Nobel Prize. Carlos Ortiz/RIT Robert Pearson has taught numerous lab courses and trainings. Some of his early lab notes and processes from the cleanroom during the time he was a student became the basis for some of the program materials used today. What are some of the similarities and differences of the industry and students, then and now? The industry in the early days of our program was very much aware of what decisions they made and how it affected their bottom line. If they found they were getting good hires from RIT, and it was helping them, they did their best to encourage us. That kept us on track for teaching what they wanted. When the semiconductor industry was still emerging, it was exciting. It was one of the obvious roots to success. The students were eager, and they worked hard. They still do. Our alumni said their careers took off because of RIT. They traveled internationally, managed big departments and projects, started their own companies. It just amazes me what all our students have done. What personal and academic accomplishments are you most proud of? Motorola was set to build a fab in Virginia. I thought, I would love a teaching experience at a place that had a fab right next door. We did get industry support at RIT, but not in the way of having it right there. Ironically, I went to Virginia after 14 years teaching at RIT and developed a microelectronic engineering program at Virginia Commonwealth University. It’s interesting that people thought they could do what RIT did, like it was no big deal, and they could not. The uniqueness of this program is immense. I returned to teaching at RIT in 2003 and became program director in 2008. Outside of the college, I’ve been a steering committee member of two large conferences—the University Industry Government Microelectronic Symposium since 1985 and the Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Conference (founded by Lynn Fuller) since 1992. It was good advertising for our programs at RIT and what we are doing. It earned us the respect of other universities, and I’m very proud of that. I wrote the history of both of the conferences so that people would know how they began—again this is my interest in history. I should teach a history class! Academically, winning the IEEE Outstanding Teaching Award in 2023 was great and I’m proud that Ivan Puchades, a former student and now an RIT engineering faculty member, nominated me for that. I’ve also been involved in the funding and creation of three different RIT scholarship awards for our microelectronic engineering students, and I’d like to start some more. What will you be doing in retirement? Helping coach my grandkids’ soccer teams. I’ll be doing some gardening, woodworking, I like wood carving and getting back into kayaking. I haven’t done much but now will be able to get out more and do this. I’ll have more time to ride my bike—if my knee still works—those old soccer injuries. I live in Henrietta and will probably still be on campus, I can’t seem to stay away.