Barry Silverstein, former senior director and CTO of optics and display at Meta Reality Labs will direct the Center for Extended Reality at the University of Rochester. Silverstein stepped down from his role at Meta, which he had held since 2017. Barry Silverstein. Courtesy of the University of Rochester. The Center for Extended Reality (CXR) is a transdisciplinary center focused on artificial intelligence, augmented reality, virtual reality, and other intersecting technologies. Established over the summer as part of the university's 2030 strategic plan, CXR will serve as a hub to connect the university’s experts in optics, computing, data science, neuroscience, education, the humanities, and other fields to focus on advancing augmented and virtual reality. Silverstein, an alumnus of the University’s Institute of Optics, began his 28-year career at Eastman Kodak Company in 1984, working on everything from space-based optical systems to 3D digital cinema projectors. In 2013, he moved to IMAX as senior director of research and development hardware, leading a team in the design, development, and commercialization of IMAX’s premier laser projection system. His transition to Meta in 2017 saw him move from making the world’s largest projection systems to the world’s smallest, overseeing multiple teams researching and developing technologies for head-mounted AR and VR headsets, and working to make that technology viable for commercialization. The co-leads who developed the proposal for CXR include Nick Vamivakas, the Marie C. Wilson and Joseph C. Wilson Professor of Optical Physics; professor Duje Tadin from the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences; Meg Moody, director of Studio X; Mujdat Cetin, the Robin and Tim Wentworth Director of the Goergen Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence; Jannick Rolland, the Brian J. Thompson Professor of Optical Engineering; Susana Marcos, the David R. Williams Director of the Center for Visual Science; and associate professor Benjamin Suarez-Jimenez from the Department of Neuroscience.