OSC Alumni Happenings

June 26, 2008 -- OSC Alumni Dinner in Taipei. Earlier this month, at the 6th International Conference on Optics Design and Fabrication in Taipei, Taiwan, Jim Wyant had dinner with a number of OSC alumni who also attended the conference. Front row, left to right: Rong-Seng Chang, Ming-Wen Chang, Cheng-Chung Lee, Jim Wyant, Yi-Chun Chen. Back row, left to right: Chao-Wen Liang, Chiayu Ai, Chang Kwon Hwangbo, Lon A. Wang, Kenji Konno, Philip Lam, Allen Miao, Chien Chou. Please click on the thumbnail for a larger image.

May 29, 2008 -- Peter H. Smith, MS 1977. At Commencement on May 17, in addition to conferring an honorary doctorate on our Nicolaas Bloembergen, UA also honored OSC graduate Peter H. Smith with an Alumni Achievement Award. Peter Smith, is world-renowned as the principal investigator of the Phoenix Mars Mission. A few days ago, the spacecraft landed in the northern polar region of Mars where it will conduct science experiments for three months as part of NASA's search for life in our solar system. In his nearly 30 years at UA's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, Peter Smith has participated in many of the seminal space missions to explore the solar system, most notably by his involvement with Mars instrumentation. Beginning with the Imager for the Mars Pathfinder, he also build cameras for the Mars polar lander, Pioneer Venus, and Pioneer Saturn missions. He also initiated nearly a decade of study of outer-planet atmospheres, particularly for Jupiter, Titan, and Saturn, using the Hubble Space Telescope, was the project manager for a descent camera for the Juygens Probe that returned the first close-up images of Titan's surface, and managed the building of the 2005 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE camera.

April 17, 2008 -- Carl Maes, MS 2002 and PhD 2003, OSC's Associate Dean for Academic Programs, has accepted membership on the College of Optical Sciences Development Board. The goal of the Development Board is to generate revenue to directly support student and faculty needs in keeping with the mission of the college.

April 10, 2008 -- Entrepreneurs Michael and Traci Pate (They have a double connection to OSC: Mike received an MS from us in 2001 and Traci is a former member of our office staff.) have new products they would like to share with us: a fisheye resolution test target and a line of standard and custom fisheye lenses for MCOS and CCD imaging. Their company, Optical Short Course International, Inc., based in Corvallis, Oregon, delivers optical engineering training in a variety of formats: eBooks, DVDs, Webinars, Live Courses, and Custom Courses at their clients' facilities. For more information, please visit their Web site at www.oscintl.com.

March 13, 2008 -- Mark Sartor, MS 1992 and PhD 1999, has just returned from Afghanistan where he was contracted as a subject matter expert to support the Army. He writes: "I traveled to Bagram, Afghanistan to help the Army install a new video processing system I helped conceive a few years ago. The system, called PSDS2 (Persistent Surveillance Dissemination System of Systems, has helped to save the lives of many soldiers. While both the travel and work were strenuous and stressful, I found it very fulfilling, and I was honored to serve the many fine and often heroic service people over in Afghanistan. Although I have worked on a number of state-of-the-art systems for the US military, this is the first time I had the honor of putting it into the hands of those who would use it and actually observe how it helps our troops. (Similar systems were also put in Iraq.) The war in Afghanistan is called Operation Enduring Freedom, and was a direct response to the events of 9-11. There is a multinational force coalition that provides military and humanitarian support to the country, and these military and civilian people go into the country every day both to help rebuild the country (schools, bridges, roads, infrastructure, etc.) and to provide security to a war-weary population. Unfortunately, the American press usually only reports when stuff gets blown up or people are killed, and they miss a lot of the good that goes on, especially in Afghanistan, which often takes a second seat to Iraq. "While over there, I also got involved in a humanitarian project called Operation CARE, which is involved in helping the Afghan children and mothers. I sent word back to my family and they helped to collect over 4000 pounds of formula for the babies and mothers in Afghanistan. We recently shipped it all over there and are awaiting photos from the distribution. They are now collecting school supplies and clothing for the next drive. Here are a few links if you are interested. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF9Ue0nUH88 http://www.spiritofamerica.net/cgi-bin/soa/project.pl?rm=view_project&request_id=144 http://www.bagram.afnews.af.mil/photos/index.asp?page=29 I have been speaking at various schools on technology and science careers, and where my work in optics has led me including my recent trip to Afghanistan. Through the last 25 years my optics education and work have led to some experiences that I suspect some of your students might find interesting (work on Star Wars, B2 Bomber, Night Vision and Image Fusion for the Army, an Automated Machine Vision product, UAV systems, Iris ID, 3D Visualization, Hemispherical Vision for vehicles, etc.). A talk would be more experiential than technical (lots of pics), and would also discuss the business aspects of our field; however I could manage to through in some equations if absolutely necessary! I can usually tailor the time up or down to suit the slot. My goal overall is to get our youth excited about careers in science in general and our field specifically, and that you can do some pretty cool stuff with an education in optics. Title might be something like…Optics can take you anywhere!" Editor's Note: Mark's message was sent from New Jersey. He can be reached via email at msartor@rdisllc.net

March 7, 2008 -- Elka Ertur Koehler, OSC PhD 2000 and MS 1993, will present A Scientist's Perspective of Congress. Elka Koehler, who served as an AAAS Congressional Fellow in Washington DC, will present her experiences and perspectives of the legislative process from a scientist's point of view. This prestigious fellowship is designed to demonstrate the value of science-government interaction, and to bring technical backgrounds and external perspectives to the decision-making process in Congress. Working as a special legislative assistant in policy areas requiring scientific and technical input gave her the unique opportunity to learn firsthand how the federal government operates and to help make decisions that result in national public policy. While serving as a science advisor to Senator Joseph I. Lieberman (D-CT) during her leave of absence from Raytheon, she performed background research for legislation, drafted bills and amendments, prepared questions for witnesses at Senate hearings, and wrote Senate floor statements, oversight letters to the administration, speeches, and position papers on science and technology related issues. She will briefly discuss some of the science related issues the Congress continues to deal with, including the state of the U.S. innovation infrastructure in the face of globalization.

January 31, 2008 -- Peter Smith, OSC MS 1977, a Senior Research Scientist with UA's Department of Planetary Sciences and PI on the Phoenix Mars Mission, will present a special lecture titled Uncovering the Mysteries of the Martian Arctic on Tuesday, February 5 at 7:00 p.m. in UMC's DuVal Auditorium. NASA's current mission to the Red Planet is being managed and led at The University of Arizona. The Phoenix Mars Mission, scheduled to land on May 25, will study the history of water and search for complex organic molecules in the ice-rich soil of the Martian arctic. It is the first Mars mission to be led by a public university. The lander will probe farther north than any previous mission to Mars. The UA has been involved in every mission to Mars starting with Mariner 4 in 1964 -- and many other planetary missions -- and the Phoenix mission continues that rich exploration tradition. Peter Smith's proposal for a NASA Scout Mission was awarded in 2003. Previously, he has been project manager and co-investigator for the UA's HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) aboard Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, is on the science team for the Mars Exploration Rovers, and was principal investigator for the successful Imager for Mars Pathfinder in 1997. He is a graduate of Tucson High School, received a bachelor of science in physics from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master's degree in optical science from the UA. He has been a member of the UA faculty since 1978. The lecture is free and open to the public. DuVal Auditorium is located at University Medical Center, 1501 N. Campbell Avenue. Parking is available in the parking garage immediately east of UMC for $1.50 per hour. For more information or to request disability related accommodations, please email amarx@email.arizona.edu or call 626.8121.

January 17, 2008 -- Alumni Reunion in San Jose: Jim Wyant, OSC Dean and Professor, sends a message to all OSC alumni: Alumni, you are all invited to attend the College of Optical Sciences' Alumni Reunion Reception at SPIE’s Photonics West in San Jose, California on Tuesday, January 22, at 5:30 p.m. The reception will be held in the Grande Ballroom of the Sainte Claire Hotel, a five-minute walk from the San Jose Convention Center. As always, your families and guests are welcome. There is no need to RSVP, but if you have questions, please contact Barbara Myers at bmyers@optics.arizona.edu or 520-621-8418. We look forward to seeing you in San Jose.

January 17, 2008 -- Steven Saxe, OSC PhD 1985, sent the following note and video link: "Finally, I can talk about what I've been working on - we just went public at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and made it to YouTube! Google "3M Mobile Projector" and check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YOjhYKpSEk. I've been with 3M since 1985, working on and managing a wide variety of optical and projection new product development projects, in addition to some assignments in marketing and new business development. The latest is the 3M Mobile Projection Engine, a tiny video projection module designed to be integrated into mobile and handheld devices. I manage an incredible group of people, who are really the ones responsible for this world-changing new product. On the personal front, my twin boys Connor and Jacob are now juniors in high school, as hard as that may be to absorb. My wife Coral and I have been married for 29 years; she has several published novels and is working on another one now. We have a dog and a cat and a nice suburban house in Minnesota. I play electric bass and sing in a couple of bands, when my travel schedule permits, and enjoy photography. My son Jake and I are planning a weekend getaway to Tucson next month, so I hope we'll have time to stop by and say hey to everyone.

November 29, 2007 -- Michael A. Pate, MS 2001, President and Founder of Optical Short Course International, Inc (OSCI) sends the following message: Recently, I traveled with my wife and OSCI Office Manager, Traci, to London to teach our popular course again, Applied Digital Projector Design with Zemax® to an outstanding group of optical design and illumination design engineers from Europe’s leading companies. We have also enjoyed teaching this course in the U.S.A., Asia, and in-house at companies worldwide using Zemax®, FRED, and LightTools™. Editor's Note: Both Michael and Traci Pate have OSC roots: While Michael completed his MS in Optical Sciences, Traci served on OSC's staff in the Travel and Purchasing Office.

Robert Breault, PhD 1979, is the President and Founder of Breault Research Organization, known as BRO, an OSC Industrial Affiliate at the Principal Partners. level. BRO is an optical engineering firm of global reach and reputation. Their products include optical software, optical engineering services, and ASAP software training. This year, our good friends at BRO have created a special ASAP course for OSC and would like to fill it up.

From Michael Stevenson, Director of Marketing at BRO and a former OSC student. \

WHAT: Special Introduction to ASAP Tutorial for UA's College of Optical Sciences

WHEN: January 7-11, 2008 (Winter Break)

WHERE: Breault Research Organization, 6400 East Grant Road, Suite 350

This is your chance to take the same Introduction to ASAP Tutorial that BRO gives to hundreds of engineers in industry each year. But this class has a few added features:

It has been added to the schedule Jan 7-11 to give UofA faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates a chance to learn about ASAP over the Winter Break.
The $2,000 enrollment fee is waived for current UofA faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates.
Students in this class will be some of the first to see the forthcoming ASAP 2008 V1R1 release with enhanced polarization modeling, optimization routines, new HTML help, and much more!
Each student will sit and work on his or her own ASAP workstation in BRO's Roland Shack Tutorial Room. Space is limited! Only 5 seats remain.
Register now if you are interested.
To register, please contact Mary Turner at mturner@breault.com, or simply fax the registration form (link below) to BRO with the Jan 7-11 course noted. Indicate payment as "promo class".

Schedule: http://www.breault.com/training/training-schedule.php Course Overview: http://www.breault.com/training/training-overview.php Registration Form ("Intro... USA PDF"): http://www.breault.com/training/training-register.php Kind Regards, Michael Stevenson, Director of Marketing mstevenson@breault.com Breault Research Organization, Inc. http://www.breault.com 6400 E Grant Road, Suite 350, Tucson, AZ 85715 520.721.0500 voice x189. 800.882.5085 toll-free. 520.721.9630 fax.

November 29, 2007 -- Carl Maes, PhD 2003. From Jim Wyant. I am happy to tell you that Carl Maes has accepted the position of Associate Dean of Academic Programs for Optical Sciences. Carl has a BS in physics from the Air Force Academy, an MS in Physics from USC, and a PhD in Optical Sciences from here. His MS thesis was on Aberrated Point Spread Functions and Beam Quality for Optical Systems with Annular Pupils and his advisor was Vini Mahajan. His PhD dissertation was on Transverse Mode Properties of Lasers with Gaussian Gain and his advisor was Ewan Wright. Carl spent approximately 20 years in the Air Force including six years teaching, advising students, and doing research at the Air Force Academy, four years doing research at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland AFB, and five years as a program manager and project officer at the Space and Missile System Center in Los Angeles. Most recently he has been teaching in UA's physics department. Carl will start at Optical Sciences on January 2.

November 8, 2007 -- Abdeq Abdi, PhD 2005, sends the following: I am a Post Doc Research Fellow at the newly established Purdue Univ. Water Institute on the Calumet campus, 25 miles from Chicago and Lake Michigan. I started the optical sensor simulation research program, and am currently developing fiber optic sensing hardware and software with application in water borne detection of chemical contaminants. My accomplishment is seeing parts of my previous research work appear in four articles within one year and in four major journals. Also, I started Saada Optical, LLC in 2004 and renamed it GageBoy, LLC in 2007. It is still work in progress but I am getting there! Word to the wise: It's better to be a big fish in a little pond than a little fish in a big one. All other combinations cancel!

November 8, 2007 -- John Hartke, PhD 2005, Director of the Photonics Research Center for the United States Military Academy at West Point, sends the following: I am currently deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Kabul, Afghanistan. My mission here is to serve as a part of the US mentor team to National Military Academy of Afghanistan (NMAA). The Afghanistan Army is modeling NMAA after our own West Point. As a part of the mentor team, I am helping the science department establish their courses and laboratory program. Last week NMAA administered their entrance exam to almost 1800 candidates for 300 positions. I've attached two pictures. The first is of the candidates taking the exam. Notice the candidates are taking the exam out in the sun on clipboards. The second is of me screening applicants for their English speaking ability. We are hoping to find a handful of applicants who can go to one of the military academies in the US, Canada, or UK. There is more in an Air Force news story at http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123074373

November 8, 2007 -- Jim Palmer -- PhD 1975. Jim Palmer's Legacy Continues: An OSC alumnus, Jim received his PhD in Optical Sciences under the direction of Bill Wolfe. His dissertation, titled A Solar Flux Radiometer for the 1978 Pioneer-Venus Mission, documented his design of a flawless instrument carried onboard a Venus probe that monitored the atmosphere of that planet to investigate its greenhouse effect. After nearly 30 years in storage, Jim's backup spaceflight-ready solar flux radiometer and spare radiometer light pipes are on display in Meinel 450, the James M. Palmer Junior Teaching Laboratory. Drop by and take a look at them when you have a chance.

November 1, 2007 -- Arthur Gmitro, PhD 1982, is a Professor of Radiology and Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona. In recognition of his excellence in teaching and genuine personality, a group of Art's former and current students honored him with a commissioned painting by local artist Anna Lemnitzer. Asked about what this meant to him Art said, "It's a great honor to be recognized in this way by my current and former students and to be part of the outstanding academic tradition of the College of Optical Sciences". The painting, Cañón Magnifico, includes a representation of Art and intrigues the viewer with two views of the canyon. It hangs on the 4th floor gallery of the College's new West Wing, where it overlooks Christopher Reis' beautiful Desert Flower sculpture and the College's collection of antique optical instruments.

November 1, 2007 -- Jack Jewell, MS 1981 and PhD 1984, is scheduled to present our Colloquium next week, November 8.

November 1, 2007 -- Cheng-Chung Lee, PhD 1983, is a Professor at Taiwan's National Central University and Chair of the Department of Optics and Photonics. He has posted an announcement of three faculty openings in the Optics Employment section of this newsletter.

November 1, 2007 -- Michael Lefebvre, MS 1984, checked in with us last week as he and his family were fleeing San Diego's wildfires. This week he sends greetings from Northern California where they are staying with his parents before preparing to head home. He said, "The desert was good; albeit for only two days. It starting snowing ash Thursday night as the onshore flow pushed the smoke inland. We decided that the bay area would better serve our health and we made it to Morgan Hill (east of Santa Cruz and south of San Jose) lafter an 8 hour road trip! As we drove from the Coachella Valley out to the Grapevine on I-5, we passed all the major fires. It looked like a bomb had gone off - the mountains were completely obscured and visibility was about 2 km. Unbelievable! Our home needs cleaning up but was unharmed, as were most of my family and friends, so we are among the very fortunate."

October 25, 2007 -- Van Hodgkin, MS 1989 and PhD 1994, is a government scientist at the U.S. Army's Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate, aka the famous Night Vision Lab. He was

recently honored with a 2006 NVESD Employee of the Year award for technical excellence for his contributions to the Army's 3rd Gen FLIR (Forward Looking Infrared) programs in the area of phenomenological modeling and analysis.

October 25, 2007 -- Michael Lefebvre, MS 1984, likes to jump out of perfectly functioning airplanes: "I am employed by QinetiQ-North America in San Diego developing multi-spectral imagers and custom laser illuminators for aerial reconnaissance and land-mine detection. When not at work, I’m busy with my wife, Maggie (UA – class of 85) and our three kids, Jackie (17), Elle (9) and Cole (5). Additionally, I am ever passionate about exquisite bicycles, trail running, scuba and skydiving. P.S. My mother-in-law is also a UA alumnus! (Class of ’62)." The photo shows Michael in the foreground, skydiving with his "brother" Angel Polo, a UCLA EE who designs Blue Tooth Technology. Editor's Note: On Tuesday morning, Michael sent an e-mail letting us know that the San Diego fires were close to their home so he and his family were evacuating to Palm Springs. From his perspective: "It is surreal beyond belief, but we have each other, our important documents, our dog Dulce, and some great photos." Michael, please keep us updated on how you are all doing.

October 25, 2007 -- Lionel Liebman, BS 1996, e-mailed the following while decompressing from a trip to Kansas State University. "Steph and I have been living in Plano, Texas since 1996. We have three children now: Sadie, 13; Josie, 11, and Gabe, 7. Steph is a CPA/CFE and currently Director of Corporate Audit at EDS. We will celebrating our 16th wedding anniversary next month! We originally moved to Dallas because I took a job with the optics design group at Texas Instruments' Defense Systems and Electronics Group. Raytheon acquired DSEG and I left and took a job in 1999 as principal optical engineer at an Israeli startup pre-ipo fiber optics company: LaserComm. When the telcom market melted down in 2002, I went to Lockheed Martin as an electro-optics designer for LADAR systems. Over the last 5 years, I've become the resident optics design and fiber optics technology subject matter expert and have 5 filed patent applications - primarily in areas of fiber optic transceiver technologies. This year I moved into a new role as business development manager for applied research. In addition to our careers and our kids various activities, I do some optics consulting on the side and Steph and I also own a web-based company Liebman Development Group. Here's our latest website: www.lliebman.qhealthzone.com Go Wildcats!"

October 18, 2007 -- Prateek Jain, PhD 2006, wrote to let us know that he's having a grand time working for Pelco in Fort Collins, Colorado. Pelco is one of the world's largest manufacturers of video security equipment.

October 18, 2007 -- Mauro Pereira, MS 1989 and PhD 1992, is a full professor of Materials Sciences at UK's Sheffield Hallam University. (Chair on Theory of Semiconductor Materials and Optics.) Check out his bio at http://www.shu.ac.uk/research/meri/electronic/m_pereira.html

October 18, 2007 -- Philip McCulloch, BS 2005, sends the following: "My wife, Nicole, and I just had our first child: Hannah was born on September 19. After graduation I went to work for Santa Barbara Remote Sensing where I worked on the radiometric calibration of the next generation weather imaging satellite sensor program, VIIRS. The company was closed down a year later by Raytheon and now I am the only Optical Engineer for Michigan Aerospace Corporation in Ann Arbor, Michigan."