Adlens® Appoints Chief Technology Officer
Dr. Rob Stevens Leads Development of Revolutionary Eyewear Technology in Newly Created Role
Oxford, UK, August 2013 – Adlens®, the technology company specialising in the development and commercialisation of easily adjusted, variable focus eyewear, has announced that Dr. Rob Stevens has been promoted to Chief Technology Officer, a newly created role in the company. As CTO, Stevens leads an extensive and talented team of scientists, engineers and designers; all of whom have been key in creating two new variable focus products, set to launch by the end of 2013.
Since joining the company in 2008 as Technical Director, Stevens has been instrumental in the development of its two existing technologies – Fluid-Injection, currently in the John Lennon™ and Hemisphere® lines and Alvarez, currently in the Emergensee™ collection. Under his leadership, the team has been named inventors of all 110 patents held by Adlens®. Together, they are combining advanced optical and mechanical modelling with materials science, machining and fabrication to further the advancement of prescription lenses, allowing consumers to adjust lenses to their individual prescriptions for the first time.
“Rob is a critical part of our company’s mission to change the way glasses are used around the world through innovation, technology and engineering,” said Michael C. Ferrara, CEO & Executive Chairman of Adlens®. “Rob is at the helm of the most exciting advances our industry has seen in decades. Glasses are increasingly recognised as the next big category of innovation, we look forward to supporting Rob and his team on their journey to develop the eyewear of the future.”
Adlens® technology has made it possible to provide glasses to developing nations where 
there is an insufficient number of optometrists and ophthalmologists to aid the millions of people in need of prescription lenses. By 2015 its philanthropic programme, Buy One Give One, administered by its charitable partner, Vision for a Nation, will provide eyeglasses to everyone in need of vision correction throughout the entire population of Rwanda.
Prior to joining Adlens®, Dr Stevens served as Technical Director at PS Research LLP, a company targeted at providing state of the art optical diagnostics in automotive and petrochemicals with the overarching objective of improving combustion emissions. Prior to that, he spent 8 years in research at Oxford in Nonlinear Optics and Laser Diagnostics, lectured in Physics at Jesus College Oxford, and spent four years at Pitney Bowes where he conducted a tour of duty on three continents between product development, quality, sales and marketing and IT. Dr Stevens graduated from The University of Manchester, gaining a Master of Physics (MPhys), Technological Physics, First Class Honours. He received his Doctorate in Physics (DPhil), Nonlinear Optics from The University of Oxford.
About Adlens®
Founded in 2005 in Oxford, England by businessman and philanthropist James Chen, Adlens® is the global leader in variable focus eyewear. Its highly skilled team of engineers, eye care professionals and design professionals has developed a completely new category of vision correction. Adlens® main product lines include Hemisphere® and The John Lennon™ Collection, featuring round-framed optical and sunglasses utilising Fluid-Injection technology, and the Adlens® Adjustables™ and Emergence™ lines, featuring a sliding-lens. Adlens® is a commercial business with a social soul: for every pair of Fluid-Injection glasses purchased, the company donates a pair of glasses to someone in the developing world as part of its Buy One Give One programme. Distribution of the glasses is administered by Vision for a Nation®, a charitable foundation running an innovative programme to provide universal access to eyeglasses, one nation at a time, starting in Rwanda.
