ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Three leaders in Rochester’s optics industry were honored with the Monroe Community College Foundation’s highest honor Thursday.

The celebration at the Joseph A. Floreano Rochester Riverside Convention Center also saw the induction of several new members into the MCC Hall of Fame.

Honorees included:

— Tom Battley, executive director of Rochester Regional Photonics Cluster and the New York Photonics Industry Association. According to a release from the foundation, “His work helped initiate the Summer Optics Sizzler, launch a flagship dual enrollment high school optics program at East High School and strengthen a world-class MCC program. Thanks in part to Battley’s leadership, 20 high schools currently teach dual enrollment optics and enrollment is exploding.”

–James M. Sydor, chairman of Sydor Optics Inc., and Monroe Community College Foundation director, According to the foundation, Sydor was the first major donor to support the new vision for the MCC Optical Systems Technology Program in 2012. It adds: Sydor is a passionate, tireless advocate for the MCC program and an exemplary success story who has been instrumental in the program’s explosive growth and overwhelming success.”

— Richard A. Nasca, manufacturing associate with Corning Tropel Corporation and past president of the American Precision Optics Manufacturers Association. His wife and daughters accepted the award posthumously on his behalf. The foundation stated: Thanks to Nasca’s leadership, expert faculty were hired to teach at MCC, curriculum was revised, laboratories were redesigned, equipment was donated, and the Corning Incorporated Foundation invested over $1.2 million to support optics education through the MCC Foundation. His contributions were limitless.”