Laser Focus By, JB Behar
It was the summer of 1971 in Binghamton, New York. Fourteen year old Dan Negus discovered his joy and aspiration, for figuring out how everyday items function. Dan, along with many of the kids in his neighborhood had gokarts and mini bikes. As a teenager, Dan became the go-to guy to keep them running as reliably as the trains that served the citizens of Binghamton. He learned from his two grandfathers, who, Dan states, “were very mechan-
ically inclined and put a lot of interest and time into helping me appreciate how things work.” The skills he learned as a teenager have served Dan well throughout his life as his focus graduated from gokarts to complex lasers. “I always had mini bikes and go-karts and loved rebuilding the engines and keeping all that kind of stuff going, not only for myself, but for other kids in the neighborhood too,” remembers Dan. This led to his love for technolo-
gy and desire to dissect all types of machinery. Dan’s early drive came from his yearning to discover different ways to accomplish tasks with moving parts and technology. Since those early days, Dan’s impact and contributions to laser technology for medical applications has been compared to the the advent of bullet trains for transportation. Trains operate on a methodical schedule and travel on a set track, while bullet trains in particular, are