There is a particular clarity that emerges when an engineer understands not only how a system works, but why it was designed that way in the first place. That clarity defines Benjamin Margulies, who officially joins Circle Optics as an Optical Engineer, after first contributing to the team as an intern.
Margulies is the third intern Circle Optics has hired into a full-time role, a milestone that reflects the company’s commitment to developing talent from Greater Rochester’s robust technical and academic ecosystem. As Circle Optics continues to grow, investing in emerging engineers and building career pathways locally remains a core part of how the company scales its technical capability.
From the beginning, Margulies distinguished himself through his ability to translate complex optical concepts into grounded, real world thinking. His work reflects a balance between theoretical understanding and practical execution, an essential quality for building imaging systems that must perform reliably in demanding environments.
Margulies’s path into optics began with photography. Long before lens models and ray tracing, he was drawn to how light behaves and how subtle optical decisions shape what an image ultimately communicates. That curiosity led him to pursue formal training at the University of Rochester, one of the world’s leading institutions for optics and photonics.
Glacier National Park Summer 2025 – Benjamin Margulies
Margulies earned both his Bachelor of Science in Optical Engineering and Master of Science in Optics from the University of Rochester, building a strong foundation in imaging systems, optical design, and performance analysis. His academic experience reinforced a systems level view of optics, where theory, manufacturability, and application must align.
Photography remains central to how Margulies thinks about optical systems. It reinforces the importance of image integrity, realism, and design choices that respect how light behaves in physical space. One of the areas Margulies is most excited to focus on full time is lens design. During the interview, he spoke about where his interests and strengths naturally converge. “I think the way we reapproach the optical problem in real time wide FOV imaging is elegant. It makes me especially excited to dive deeper into the lens design required to make that happen.”
For Margulies, this intersection is where engineering judgment matters most. It is the point where design decisions translate directly into systems that can be built, deployed, and relied upon in real world conditions.That perspective is closely tied to his view on tolerancing, a discipline that sits at the heart of optical design.“In general, tolerancing is understanding that not everything is perfect. There’s only a level of ‘good enough,’ and how close we make that level of ‘good enough’ to perfect is how expensive things get, both in terms of money and time.”
For Margulies, tolerancing is not just a technical exercise. It is where engineering judgment meets operational reality. Every design decision carries implications for manufacturability, scalability, and deployment. Knowing where precision truly matters and where flexibility is acceptable is what enables systems to move from concept to field ready performance.
“Ben brings a fresh and energetic perspective to the lens design work at Circle Optics. He tackles difficult design problems enthusiastically and makes surprising progress.” — John Bowron, PhD, Staff Optical Physicist
What excites Margulies most about Circle Optics’ technology is its fundamental reframing of the panoramic imaging problem. Rather than relying primarily on software to compensate for parallax and stitching artifacts after the fact, Circle Optics addresses these challenges optically at the hardware level. This approach reduces downstream processing demands and enables real time, wide field of view imaging with greater integrity. This perspective aligns with Circle Optics’ emphasis on minimizing parallax to reduce complexity, latency, and distortion, particularly in mission critical applications where real time performance matters.
Margulies is quick to credit collaboration as a defining part of his growth. Recent work alongside Staff Optical Physicist John Bowron, PhD, involved troubleshooting complex ray tracing issues where answers were not immediately clear. Progress came through shared problem solving, careful review, and iteration. For Margulies, the experience reinforced something simple but powerful. Writing the problem down clearly is often half the solution. Working through it together is the rest. This collaborative environment, paired with Circle Optics’ culture of autonomy and trust, has shaped how Margulies approaches both learning and contribution. Although Circle Optics operates successfully as a hybrid organization, Margulies made a deliberate choice to relocate from Tennessee to Rochester. The motivation was hands on work.
Circle Optics has a growing need for strong optical expertise in the lab, someone who can move fluidly between digital design and physical systems. Margulies values that balance.“I like working with my hands. If I can do a little bit of both, that tends to be better in the long term.” With his academic roots at the University of Rochester and existing ties to the regional optics ecosystem, the move felt like a natural step rather than a disruption. Outside of work, Margulies stays active and outdoors. He enjoys photography, hiking, backpacking, basketball, and golf, a passion he shares with his father. Rochester’s access to nature and exceptional golf courses has been an added bonus, with Oak Hill firmly on his wish list.
As Margulies looks toward the future, he is excited by the possibility that Circle Optics’ technology may one day extend beyond specialized applications into broader markets. Hardware driven optical solutions, when designed thoughtfully, can offer clarity and performance that feels both intuitive and robust.
His transition from intern to full time Optical Engineer reflects more than individual growth. It reflects Circle Optics’ belief in cultivating talent locally, investing in early career engineers, and building enduring capability through the Greater Rochester innovation ecosystem. We are excited to officially welcome Benjamin Margulies as an Optical Engineer at Circle Optics.
