Steven J. Sasson is a professor in the USF Institute for Advanced Discovery & Innovation and was a project manager in the Intellectual Property Transactions group at Kodak before retiring in 2009. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, N.Y. He joined Eastman Kodak Company as an electrical engineer in 1973 and began working in the Kodak Apparatus Division applied research laboratory. He engaged in a number of early digital imaging projects. Among these was the design and construction of the first digital still camera and playback system in 1975. He continued to work throughout the 1980s in the emerging field of digital photography, receiving over 10 key digital imaging patents. In 1989, he led the development of the first prototype megapixel electronic digital camera utilizing DCT compression that stored images to flash memory cards. In the 1990s he developed one of the first photographic quality thermal printing systems, derivatives of which are still in use in self-service imaging kiosks around the world today. He has received numerous recognitions for his work, including his 2011 induction in the National Inventors Hall of Fame, 2009 Economist Magazine Consumer Products Innovation Award, selection as an AAAS-Lemelson Invention Ambassador, and the U.S. National Medal of Technology and Innovation, which he received in 2009 from President Obama.