NSU Horizons Spring 2013

30 HORIZONS Bai-Chuan Jiang, Ph.D., FAAO, has distinguished himself as a visionary. The scientific community knows him as a dedicated research scientist in the field of optometry, a sought-after speaker, and the author of more than 70 influential treatises. At NSU’s College of Optometry, Jiang is known as an innovative professor of optics who has been ranked by his students as the most popular in 6 of his 12 years here. His latest honor at NSU is being named the first recipi- ent of the President’s Distinguished Professor Award. The honor is presented annually to a full-time faculty member who has served at least 10 years; earned a distinguished reputation for instruction, research, and scholarship; and achieved national and international recognition. An NSU peer committee reviewed Jiang’s contributions, and Frank DePiano, Ph.D., executive vice president for academic affairs and provost, selected him as the award recipient. Jiang’s journey from China to NSU began with a key turn in his native country’s history: the end of the notorious Cultural Revolution in 1976. That also ended 12 years of forced labor in a camera factory for Jiang, a promising physics student with an interest in optics. Jiang attended a meeting where two noted professors of optics were speaking. Later, one of them showed him Hermann von Helmholtz’s book, Physiological Optics . At that time, no one in China studied vision science with a background in optics. It was then that Jiang knew what he wanted to do. China was changing and universities began accepting graduate students. “I took a test,” Jiang remembered, “and was admitted to the Shanghai Institute of Physiology, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.” He earned his Ph.D. there in 1986, and continued his study and training at the University of Toronto, Pennsylvania State University, and the University of Houston. Before his career in the United States, Jiang was pioneering the development of physiological optics study in China. He still travels there about once a year, acting as a visiting or consulting professor for four medical universities. Generally, Jiang stays a month in China, lecturing and conducting seminars, a benefit for his home country that also raises NSU’s high profile in optometry science and often attracts students who come to study at NSU. Jiang is grateful for the latitude he enjoys at NSU, not only for travel to China, but also the time he spends in research for NSU. He has been awarded nine grants for vision research from NSU. He repays the university with his art of teaching and through his dedication to the publications he writes. Students are not shy about praising Jiang. Optometry stu- dent Bryan J. Mirone called him “a wonderful professor,” one who always made himself available when help was needed. A Visionary in the Field of Optics BY JOHN DOLEN Bai-Chuan Jiang works on an optics bench. FACULTY PROFILE