Anthony DeMaria is Chief Scientist, Lasers for Coherent Laser Systems (Bloomfield, CT), and Distinguished Professor-in-Residence in the University of Connecticut School of Engineering. He has been active in the world of lasers since before Ted Maiman created the first working ruby laser in 1960. In this video he discusses Coherent's place in the laser market, and reflects on the progress of the laser since its inception.

DeMaria founded DeMaria Electro-Optics Systems, Inc. (DEOS) in 1994 after purchasing intellectual property of the CO₂ laser unit of Hamilton Standard. He was chairman and CEO of DEOS, manufacturing sealed-off, RF-excited waveguide CO₂ lasers for industrial and governmental applications. The company was purchased in 2001 by Coherent, Inc. Before founding DEOS, he devoted 37 years of his career to the Hamilton Standard (now Hamilton Sundstrand) division of United Technologies Corporation and to the United Technologies Research Center. He is a member of both the National Academy of Engineering (1976) and the National Academy of Sciences (1997). He is a Fellow of SPIE, and served as President of SPIE in 2003. He holds more than 45 U.S. patents.