President Barack Obama has awarded IBM scientists with national medals

For the tenth time, IBM scientists received a prestigious national award in technology and innovation. A fun experiment with the remnants of turkey from Thanksgiving Day led to the emergence of vision correction technology that has helped more than 25 million people around the world.



President Barack Obama presented a group of IBM scientists to James J. Wynne, Rangaswamy Srinivasan, and Samuel Blum — national medals in technology and innovation — the most prestigious award in the United States that innovators can receive for a breakthrough in technology. They were honored with this award for discovering a potentially new method in laser surgery based on the use of an excimer laser. Thanks to their discovery, it became possible to use modern laser keratomillosis (LASIK) and photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) in the field of refractive eye surgery.

US President Barack Obama personally awarded Dr. Whein and Shrinivasana during a solemn ceremony at the White House. For IBM itself, this is the tenth prestigious award received for all the time in the technology field.
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“It is a great honor to receive an award for our research more than 30 years after our first discovery,” said Dr. Wine, a spokesman for IBM Research.

The transformational work of IBM scientists in the field of laser surgery has shaped the order of operations using a laser. Satisfying all the requirements of safe surgery, the excimer laser eventually replaced many surgical instruments, including the scalpel, which lacked precision and could inadvertently damage the cornea during surgery, in which case additional treatment was required.

In 1981, the day after Thanksgiving, three researchers who at that time had extensive knowledge in the field of laser physics, polymer photochemistry and materials science, set up an experiment with the remnants of yesterday's turkey and a laser. The essence of the experiment was to try to make an incision on a turkey cartilage with an excimer laser. And the experiment was a success: an even incision was made, and besides, the researchers noticed that the laser did not damage the surrounding incision and did not cause any bleeding. The result prompted them to believe that the laser could bring medicine to a new level.

Through the use of shortwave ultraviolet radiation, the excimer laser made an even cut of the cartilage, leaving no burns or charring. The ability of an excimer laser to not damage the surrounding and internal tissues interested not only doctors, but also patients. And after the publication of the results of the study and its re-holding at the Main Laser Conference in 1983, the team of ophthalmologists drew the attention of the IBM team of scientists, the collaboration with which allowed the technology to be promoted through practical experiments and trials.

Nowadays, laser keratomillosis (LASIK) and photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) methods are not only more commonly practiced, but also the most popular vision correction methods in the world, thanks to which more than 25 million people have acquired good vision. James Wine continues to work at IBM, at the Thomas D. Watson Research Center, and Rangaswami Srinivasana and Samuel Bloom have long been retired. The latter, Dr. Samuel Bloom, died on January 9, 2013 at the age of 92 years.

In addition to the national medal in technology and innovation, the National Academy of Engineering will award scientists Fritz and Dolores Russ Award for outstanding achievements in the field of bioengineering, which are widely used throughout the world.

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