Sciton was founded in 1997 by two Laser Physicists, Dr. Jim Hobart and Dr. Dan Negus. Jim. They were a pioneer in the laser industry. In the 1960’s, he founded the highly successful laser company Coherent. You may know that Jim designed Coherent’s first CO2 laser called the UltraPulse, which for many years was considered the Gold Standard in laser resurfacing. Interestingly, Jim powered it by using a 220-volt outlet from his laundry room. He knew, even back then, that was the power that he needed to get the laser to work at peak efficiency.

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Coherent went on to become the most successful and innovative laser company in the world. Its aesthetic division had grown immensely and was eventually sold off.

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In 1996, Jim made the difficult decision to retire from the company that he founded thirty years earlier. The company had become a large, publicly-traded corporation that was willing to forsake quality for Wall Street returns. Jim, being notorious for stopping the production line when something wasn’t right from a quality standpoint, didn’t agree with this model, and ultimately resigned.

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Luckily for us, retirement just wasn’t for him, and in 1997, Jim brought over 15 key individuals from Coherent, including the head of Research and Development, Dan Negus, and started Sciton.

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In 1997, when Sciton was established, the original corporate policy was, and still is, “Do the Right Thing.”