My first introduction to the optics world was working at Corning Incorporated. There, I worked on many laser processing techniques and processes. This included uses existing non-diffracting beams and creating new ones with spatial light modulators to accomplish the goals at hand. At the end of my career I wrote 9 invention disclosures and have so far gained 4 public patents. At the University of Arizona I am experiences another side of optics with working in infrared systems. There are a few areas of focus including detection of UAVs in the midwave and longwave infrared, modeling path radiance and transmission of the atmosphere in MODTRAN, comparing the VIS, NIR, SWIR, eSWIR, MWIR and LWIR for long range detection, high voltage wire detection and infrared characteristics of clouds.