In the seconds after Ren Ng took this photo of a friend’s daughter, he wondered, Do pictures have to be focused before you take the shot? Pursuing that question reframed his life.
Back in July 2006, Ng wrote a groundbreaking, 187-page dissertation that explored a then-theoretical notion that a camera sensor could capture all light traveling in every direction, allowing a photograph to be refocused after the snap. This February, he transformed theory into a shutterbug sensation: Lytro, his rectangular spyglasslike camera, enables users to capture a picture from virtually all depths and lenses with just one click.
Timeline
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2001
Earns B.S. at Stanford, followed by an M.S. in 2002 and his PhD in 2006
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2004
Builds prototype for his dissertation
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2006
Completes 187-page dissertation; founds Lytro
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2011
Raises $50 million for Lytro
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2012
Launches the Lytro camera