Two West Virginia University alumnione who is a pioneer in cataract surgery and the other who is a trailblazer in the computer security industrywere recently given honorary doctorates of science to go along with their other WVU degrees.

WVU recognized Addison M. Fischer and Dr. Thomas R. Mazzocco for their distinguished careers during the Universitys Commencement Weekend celebration May 16-18.

Addison M. Fischer

Fischer graduated in 1966 from Washington Irving High School in Clarksburg and went on to earn a bachelors degree (1970) and masters (1972) in mathematics from WVU .

He co-founded (and became president of ) a software company in Dayton, Ohio, which specialized in computer security and data integrity software for corporate users with large IBM mainframes, in 1973.

After selling the company in 1980 and moving to Naples, Fla., Fischer spent his retirement helping found the Community School of Naples, which has grown to over 700 students and become a nationally recognized independent pre-K-12 school. Its goal is to give young people the opportunity to become leaders in the sciences, arts, government and law. Students have gone on to excel at Harvard, MIT , Princeton, Stanford, Yale, Oxford and dozens of other widely recognized universities. Fischer served on the schools board of trustees from 1981-2005.

In 1982, when Fischer realized that retirement did not suit his temperament, he started his second software company, Fischer International Systems Corp. in Naples, focusing on computer security and office automation for large corporations.

Fischer has been involved in a variety of other companies. He has been a director and co-partner with Stanley Druckenmiller of Duquesne Capital Management, which manages hedge funds for domestic and international clients, since 1982. He held founding stock in RSA Data Security Inc., a well-known leader in modern computer cryptography, which for many years controlled fundamental patents in the field of public key cryptographythe technology underlying present-day security and authentication on the Internet. He was a longtime director until its merger in 1996 with a public company, now known as RSA Systems.

Fischer also held founding stock in NetScape; was founder of VeriSign, a leader in certification for Internet-based security; and was founder and chairman of SmartDisk Corp., a company which became public in October 1999 and merged with Verbatim in 2007. He is chairman of Surety Technologies, the privately held Washington, D.C.-based company that owns digital time stamp patents and provides services emerging as essential for proving authenticity of many digital documents; principal shareholder of AudibleMagic, a startup firm controlling patented technologyinitially developed by Stanford researchersfor providing intrinsic automated identification of audio and video material serving to detect and protect ownership of material transmitted over the airwaves and through the Internet; and co-founder of two Silicon Valley venture capital firms, specializing in high-tech startup companies.

In addition to the business aspects of his career, Fischer is the holder of dozens of domestic and international patents. He has addressed Congress on several topics, including digital signature standards, proposed FBI digital telephony legislation and global U.S. competitiveness. From 1995-99, Fischer was a member of the Computer Systems Security and Privacy Advisory Board, established by the Computer Security Act of 1987 to advise the president and report to Congress on issues regarding U.S. computer security. He has been a member of the X9 and X12 committees (chartered by the American National Standards Institute) that define U.S. standards for computer security and electronic commerce, respectively, and is a lifetime member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers.

Outside of business, Fischer is an advocate for various political, economic and social issues. These include protecting and conserving the Everglades, lobbying to protect the nations wilderness from exploitation and preserving the integrity of the U.S. food supply from genetically altered species.

In 2000, Fischer, working together with the Zenerji Fund, acquired a substantial amount of primeval Costa Rican rainforest to prevent its destruction by timber and farming interests. He was a member of the board of the Amazon Conservation Team, a private nonprofit organization that works in concert with indigenous South American tribes to protect their ancestral lands, from 2003-05.

In 2005, he began supporting and working closely with Jane Goodall and her worldwide conservation efforts. He has been a board member of the Jane Goodall Institute.

In 2006, the Lyon Court of Scotland officially recognized Fischer as the 35th Baron of Lee.

Dr. Thomas R. Mazzocco

Born in 1933 in Canyon, a small mining camp on the south side of Cheat Lake, Mazzocco attended Morgantown High School.

He entered WVU in 1951 and graduated in 1955 from the two-year Medical School known affectionately as thelittle red schoolhouse.In addition to an A.B. and Bachelor of Science, he completed a masters degree in physiology. He followed that up with a medical degree from Washington University in St. Louis in 1957.

After a short time spent as a family doctor, he entered the U.S. Public Health Service where he performed epidemiologic studies in air pollution. He received specialty training in ophthalmology at the USPHS hospital in San Francisco and entered private practice in 1964. He taught at the University of California at San Francisco Medical School and became a clinical professor in 1980.

From there, Mazzocco moved his practice to Van Nuys, Calif., and established a clinic and surgery center there for cataract surgery. The center was equipped with video cameras viewing through the operating microscopes, which permitted the instruction of visiting residents and ophthalmic surgeons.

In 1985, he installed more than 30 computers in the clinic to produce one of the earliest real-time, fully computerized medical record systems in the worldthe so-calledpaperlessoffice. He helped develop a unique alphanumeric data entry system for the medical records, which was unparalleled for speed and accuracy at the time of its introduction.

Mazzocco was a pioneer in phacoemulsion cataract surgery, which permitted removal of a cataract through a three-millimeter incision. In the early 1980s, he invented the folding cataract implant lens, or theMazzocco Taco,which eliminated the need for sutures and permitted a rapid return to normal activity. He co-founded the Staar Surgical Co. which produced the first folding lenses. All the major lens manufacturers now offer lenses with this feature.

Mazzoccos interests include golfing and winemaking. He patented a telescopic golf shaft used in the only golf club with a moving part to be deemedconformingby the United States Golf Association and the R&A. In 1980, he started a small family winery in Healdsburg. Mazzocco has a commercial pilot license. He is married and has three grown daughters.