March Meeting
OUR NEXT MEETING WILL BE HELD ON TUESDAY, March 10, 2026 at Cheap Charlies in Bloomfield. Our speaker for the evening will be Dr. Joseph Rosenshein.
Joe’s presentation for the evening is entitled “The Nature of Consciousness.”
” It’s the one mystery that every science—and every philosophy—ultimately rests upon: What is the nature of consciousness? On the evening of March 10th, Dr. Joseph Rosenshein will guide the Bloomfield Scientific Club through an exploration of consciousness from two essential perspectives: the rigorous third-person methods of neuroscience and philosophy of mind, and the disciplined first-person investigations of Eastern contemplative traditions. An evening designed to challenge assumptions, deepen questions, and spark lively discussion.”
Dr. Rosenshein was born and grew up in South Fallsburg, NY, a small hamlet in the southern Catskills. After graduation from high school in 1953, he attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and eventually graduated in 1963 with a B.S. and a Ph.D. in experimental physics.
After one year of postgraduate education at MIT, he was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship at the Physics Department at the University of Rome, Italy. There, for two years, he performed research on quantum vorticity in superfluid Helium near Absolute Zero in Enrico Fermi’s original laboratory.
In the next 18 years, starting in the Fall of 1966 he taught at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Dr. Rosenshein did low temperature research at the Physics Department, was a Lecturer in University High Honors Seminars and was the Director of Preprofessional Education.
After studying the quantum theory of measurement and studying the consciousness of the observer in measurement, he began working with artificial intelligence (AI) programs to simulate the nature of consciousness. He was also able to personally study the nature of consciousness experientially with some of the great living mystics of the time: Jiddu Krishnamurti, Muktananda, Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan and Oscar Ichazo.
In 1984 an offer came for a position to develop technologies and AI programs for low vision patients in the Department of Ophthalmology of Sinai Hospital of Detroit, Michigan.
Dr. Rosenshein then spent 12 years as Director of the Center for Ophthalmic R&D at Sinai Hospital which included working with ophthalmic lasers, vision testing to detect early glaucoma, and the FDA advanced clinical testing of laser vision correction. He then he became Director of the Sinai Hospital Advanced Laser and Vision Center. Within the next ten years the first laser PRK procedures and over 33,000 LASIK procedures were performed.
After most of the active ophthalmic surgeons of the Center acquired their own lasers, the Advanced Laser and Vision Center was closed. Dr. Rosenshein then found a position at Bausch and Lomb in Rochester as Manager of Global Scientific Affairs. After a few years B&L was acquired by private capital and the R&D staff was down-sized along with his position.
Now, having more time, he got involved in a prize-winning, Rochester, startup ophthalmic equipment company, Ovitz, as Chief Technology Officer and continued to be an advisor after leaving the position.
Other activities he became involved in the Monroe County were:
1) Hospice Volunteer for many years dealing with life, dying and death
2) An official New York State Ombudsman for helping patients in Assistive Living Facilities
3) A member of the Mendon Fire Department becoming President and a Fire Police Officer and eventually Captain
4) A member and President of the Third Battalion Fire Police Association of Monroe County
5) A member and President of the Honeoye Falls-Mendon Rotary Club
6) A member and President of the Books for the World, Western New York
and a very happy member of the Bloomfield Scientific Club.