This author’s unique personal perspective will honor through examples and analysis the contributions that "Disciple" Wyant has made to the optical sciences and metrology discipline and for the people that work within it. In spring 1974 the author was at the Optical Sciences Center (OSC) as a graduate student when "Physician" Wyant interviewed and made a diagnosis and improvement to a holographic interferometry configuration of a project the author was working on. “Student” Brooks went on to became one of the first of Dr. Wyant's future graduate students. He also enrolled in "Educator" Wyant's first Optical Testing OPTI213 class in 1975 where optical metrology and wavefront characterization of electromagnetic radiation was presented, defined and clarified to make the field addictive and irresistible to the author. It would prove to be the author’s strongest career influence for the next 35 years, pointing him to a profession in optical metrology within aerospace laser industrial design, integration and test engineering functions. This presentation will illustrate derivative effects of "Producer" Wyant's contributions, including examples associated with the presenter's industry experience. Also presented are examples of James Wyant’s generous philanthropic campaign.
Dr. Shack's accomplishments profoundly influenced the author's successes. His Geometric Optics 204 course in fall '73 was a key bridge between undergraduate physics and the advanced graduate curriculum of the Optical Sciences Center. The lab of that course provided the solid classical background required to function well in the other optical courses. The Y-Ybar diagram analysis tool, aberration theory notes, and lesson on kinematic plates were used by the author often throughout his professional career. This presentation will identify specific contributions of Dr. Shack that helped create value in a defense aerospace industrial environment, such as the Shack-Hartmann interferometer. Several unique stories will also be shared to illustrate Shack's wisdom and dedication to education. Dr. Shack not only served on the author's dissertation committee, but was also a key element of the Optical Science Center's recipe of success.
In this presentation selected applications from the fields of Radiometry and Scattering are mingled with personal
experiences to provide illumination upon William Wolfe’s teaching, mentorship, insights and wit. Professor Wolfe
served as the presenter’s dissertation advisor from 1979-1982, but occasional industry interactions before and after that
3-year period provided the author a unique before-during-after sampling of this industry leader, author and teacher of
Radiometry and applications of infrared technology to optical systems. The collection of selected topics begins with a
brief review of the contribution of Max Planck, specifically his discovery of the blackbody radiation law in 1900. The
assumption in Planck’s equation not only provided the foundation of Quantum Physics, but the venerable equation itself
today still serves as convenient basis for self-radiative source characterization in radiation transfer modeling for infrared
systems. Subsequent topics of a more personal experience nature will include a successful application example of an
advisor’s counsel; an insider’s life at the early days of Optical Sciences Annex; how history turned on an unlikely OSA
scatter paper presentation; social optical engineering observations; the BRDF and development of the first Arizona
computer-automated scatterometer; and a Swiss Army knife gift and metaphor. Via this review process, the author will
not only reinforce existing Wolfe paradigms, but perhaps add some unique colors to the Wolfe spectrum, illustrating
through one person’s perspective of how over the decades Professor Wolfe has positively influenced the optical
community in general, and one former Ph.D. student’s career in particular.
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