Dr. Vincent Michael Patella holds degrees in physics (Pomona College), meteorology (Texas A&M), and in vision science, and optometry (both from UC Berkeley). After serving as an Air Force meteorology officer during the Vietnam War he worked as an aerospace engineer on NASA manned space flight projects. However, most of his career has been devoted to the development of automated diagnostic devices for ophthalmology and optometry. While he is best known for leading the industrial development of the Humphrey perimeter, he also has been directly involved in the development of other diagnostic devices for eyecare, such as automated imaging devices, automated refractors, and automated contact lens fitting methods. He also maintained a private optometry practice for twenty years.

During his career, Dr. Patella has worked in a broad range of business and technical disciplines, including diagnostic concept development, new business, clinical research and clinical trials, engineering, marketing, business unit management, and global professional relations. He has co-authored five editions of the Humphrey Primer, the most widely circulated ophthalmic text book in the world. While still a student at Berkeley, he became one of the founding employees of Humphrey Instruments, now known as Carl Zeiss Meditec, from which he retired in January of 2018.

Dr. Patella is a member of the American, European, and Asia-Pacific Glaucoma Societies, and is a co-founder of the Optometric Glaucoma Society. He lives in Southern California and remains fully engaged with his profession, as a member of the adjunct faculty at the University of Iowa’s Department of Ophthalmology, as a reviewer for multiple ophthalmic journals, as a developer of new diagnostic techniques and devices, and as Senior Partner at Sand Hill Consulting Associates. In 2023 Dr. Patella was admitted to the Hall of Fame of the UC Berkeley School of Optometry, an honor accorded to only 68 graduates and faculty in the School’s one hundred year history.