C. Breck Hitz received his bachelor's degree from Penn State University, USA and his master's degree from Massachusetts State University, USA. He is the owner and principal of Photonetics Associates, USA, a consulting firm he created in 1975 after leaving a position as an R&D engineer at GTE's Electro-Optics Organization. For two decades, he was executive director of LEOMA, the trade association for North American laser and photonics manufacturers. He has been an editor of all three trade publications established in the US photonics industry: Photonics Spectra, Lasers & Applications, and Laser Focus World