Gradient Index (GRIN) optics of the human eye: contributions of Professor Carlos Gómez-Reino Carnota.

In the present issue of Journal of Optometry, the reader will find a paper describing a new approach to derive the contributions of the Gradient Index of the crystalline lens to the optical quality of the human eye. This is just an example of the seeds left by Professor Gómez-Reino in the field of Optics and Optometry. It is difficult to summarize in a few lines the life and career of Carlos Gómez-Reino Carnota (1946--2012). Carlos was born the 1st of September 1946 in Pontevedra, Spain. He left this town when he was one year old moving to Madrid with his family. He graduated in Physics from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) in 1968, obtaining a PhD in Physics (receiving a special award of PhD) from the same university in 1975. He joined the Department of Optics of the UCM, headed in that moment by Professor Armando Durán Miranda, one of the pioneers of researching in Optics and Vision in our country. During the 1970s and with a group of young researchers, scholars and teachers among whom was his wife, Maria Victoria Perez Martin (USC Professor, died the 22nd of May 2010), Carlos began to improve and upgrade the