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
based on revolutionary technology that impact millions of people. They are noted for their speed and quiet efficiency. In 1997, Dan and his co-founder, Jim Hobart, started Sciton® in Palo Alto, California. Their goal was to develop novel laser equipment for medical applications. Sciton’s lasers have traditionally been geared towards repairing skin and body conditions including acute acne, Onychomycosis, and varicose veins. “We have a product line that treats various dermal afflictions with intense pulse light – a very bright lamp flash” Dan explains, “We filter it carefully to put the right color light,
and the right intensity of light, and the right length of time of light onto the skin.” Sciton’s lasers are producing revolutionary clinical results which were previously thought, by leading experts, to be unachievable. Dan lived in Binghamton throughout his high school and college years. He graduated from
Chenango Valley High School in 1975. At the University of Binghamton, Dan was mentored by Dr. David Doetschman and worked with lasers at the dawn of this emerging industry. Dan reminisced, “Dr. Doetschman was an amazing scientist and certainly an early inspiration for me.” Dan graduated with a bachelor of science in Chemistry, married his high school sweetheart, Suzanne Maguire, and moved on to the University of Pennsylvania for graduate school. Dan learned from and worked with leading experts in laser technology and earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Physics. Following graduate school, Dan and Su-
zanne moved to California and Dan took a job at Coherent, a laser company, where he met Jim Hobart. Thinking back to how they first met, Jim recalled, “One day this face appeared in my doorway and said ‘Hi im Dan Negus’ ...we got to know one another and worked together and became very close at Coherent, and it was very natural when we started Sciton.” Dan has become recognized as a visionary in the industry and a strong leader of his company. He thinks broadly but also has a keen eye for details. There is an enormous amount of detail that goes into building a laser and running a company. Careful thought also went into the selection of the com-
pany name. Dan, Jim, and the initial employees felt that the name should have a scientific sound to it. “I felt fairly strongly that it should end in ‘-on’ because all elementary particles in physics end in ‘-on’: exciton, proton, electron, euon, they all - have ‘-on’ at the end and I thought that was something comfortable to me.” Dan’s use of the word comfortable is striking. While others find comfort in a leather couch or a soft sweater, Dan is at ease with the elementary particles of physics. Dan is the president of this rapidly growing laser company, but at his core, he is a technologist.
When talking about lasers, he is apt to throw on his lab coat persona over his relaxed hawaiian shirt (which he wears every Friday): his great depth of knowledge and passion is immediately apparent. Every business seeks to find needs that people will pay money to have solved. Sciton, a privately held company, addresses medical issues that can’t be solved with a scalpel or radiation. “It really has to solve some problem. On the aesthetic side, it has to be an application that people want – that helps them feel better about themselves or improve their quality of life, and that aesthetic practitioners can make money with. And so we look for ways that we can unique-
ly contribute to those things.” Sciton builds or adapts lasers around that philosophy. Sciton was recently featured by KRON4 (a San Francisco-Bay Area television station) for its innovative and breakthrough laser, which reverses the aging of skin by up to ten years. Sciton’s newest product is called Forever Young Broad Band Light™ (BBL). Plastic surgeon, Dr. Elizabeth Lee, was quoted: “Its kind of as close to the fountain of youth as we actually have.” She further explained, “We took the old skin and reversed the gene expression to a large degree to that of youthful skin.” According to a Stanford University clinical study, Forever Young BBL actually
changes the DNA associated with the aging process. The implications and potential for this breakthrough are enormous. Dan strives to solve problems, not only for the sense of technological advancement, but also for the joy he experiences by seeing Sciton’s new technology help people. The expanding market adoption of Sciton products also leads to increased opportunity for Sciton employees which Dan finds tremendously satisfying. “We are certainly pushing the edges of technology and thats exciting.” Trains that travel
on air and skin that gets younger, are both extraordinary developments. Dan is a modern renaissance man. He is an artist in the kitchen as a master chef, and inspires and supports his family in their musical and visually creative activities. He artistically harnesses light and uses it, as Dan states, to “solve problems that can only be solved by using the properties of light that lasers have.” Dan has molded and crafted his business around creating products that are truly revolutionary. Dan always wants to know how things work. When he discovers an unfamiliar product, he likes to takes it apart. By examining the parts and putting them back together, he masters
the device. “I’ve always loved taking things apart ... The instant I look at something, the first thing I think about is ‘how does it work?’ I have a very good idea of how many things work, and when I don’t then I like taking it apart and figuring it out. You constantly learn new things when you do that. You discover, how someone else approached a problem that you may have solved yourself, or may not have, and so I almost always got things back together... Almost always – and they usually worked as well, or better than when I took them apart.” In fact, a magnifying glass and a flashlight can always be found in Dan’s pockets, because he never knows when he will have the opportunity to examine something. Dan seems to be a person completely immersed in his job, and identifies that working on what he loves contributes to his staying and feeling young. On deeper exploration, it is clear that he does have a
balanced life with work and his wife and three daughters. “I like to draw a distinction between the beginning of the week and the end of the week, because when you work a lot, I think its important to have habits that remind you that time is going on and you need to stay balanced.” The Negus family enjoys spending weekends at their second home in La Honda. “We have internet connection but no cell service, so I can be texted but I can’t really be called.” Dan maintains this cycle week after week. However, to maintain this balance, Dan’s train always stops for his family, “I’m always available to my family. Certainly any text or phone call that comes in from them at any time during the day gets instantly answered.” The future for Sciton is as bright as their lasers. The
company has no plans to go public or sell out. Dan reflected, “I think we will stick to lasers. It is something we are good at and know. We always look at building a strong growing company by inventing new applications of technology.” Dan appears content with his work and personal life. “When you’re doing something that no one else has done before, and you’re publishing and having a good time and learning new things, that other people haven’t known before, then, it’s rewarding.”