Julie Bentley received her BS degree and PhD from the Institute of Optics, University of Rochester, USA. She is currently a Professor at The Institute of Optics and has been teaching courses in geometrical optics, optical design, and product design for more than 22 years.

Bentley’s expertise is in the optical design and tolerancing of precision optical assemblies. She has published multiple books on lens design and teaches short courses to industrial partners all over the world. Prior to joining the faculty full-time, she managed a commercial team at Corning Tropel, USA, where her role was to serve as the link between the customer and the research and development groups. She used this experience to start her own successful optical design consulting business (Bentley Optical Design) and currently works on a wide variety of design projects from biomedical instruments for cancer screening to both consumer and military optics.

She has served as an Optics Express editor and on several Optica committees, including the program committees for the Education and Training in Optics & Photonics Conference (ETOP), the International Optical Design Conference, and Frontiers in Optics. An Optica Fellow, she also received the University of Rochester’s prestigious Goergen Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. In 2022, she received the Esther Hoffman Beller Medal from Optica "for her central role in shaping the optics education of countless undergraduate and graduate students."