Emmett Leith
Emmett Norman Leith (born March 12, 1927 in Detroit , † December 23, 2005 in Ann Arbor ) was an American physicist and pioneer of holography .
Leith studied physics at Wayne State University (bachelor's degree in 1949, master's degree in 1952). From 1953 he researched the Synthetic Aperture Radar at the Institute for Science and Technology of the University of Michigan in Willow Run . He was a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan. He died of internal bleeding shortly before his planned retirement.
In 1978 he received a doctorate in electrical engineering from Wayne State University.
Leith and his colleague in Michigan, Juris Upatniek, produced the first holograms in the early 1960s . In 1964 they presented the first three-dimensional hologram at the spring meeting of the Optical Society of America , the image of a toy train with birds. The ideas for this arose even before the invention of the laser in his work on military radar systems (Synthetic Aperture Radar for aerial reconnaissance). It was only later (around 1962) that Leith found out about Dennis Gábor's ideas, which he developed in connection with the improvement of electron microscopes in the 1940s, but at that time was not yet able to implement them satisfactorily. Leith and Upatnieks used a laser and split the beam into an object and reference beam, each with different directions (off-axis holography), an idea that stems from the development of radar and with which they could avoid the problem of double images from early attempts at holography .
In 1960 he received the Morris N. Liebmann Memorial Award from the IEEE and in 1969 the Ballantine Medal. In 1979 he received the National Medal of Science , 1985 the Frederic Ives Medal , 1975 the RW Wood Prize and in 1983 the Dennis Gabor Prize of the SPIE (with Yuri Nikolajewitsch Denisjuk ).
He was married and had two daughters.
The Emmett Leith Medal of the Optical Society of America is named in his honor.
literature
- HJ Caulfield (Ed.): The Art and Science of Holography: A Tribute to Emmett Leith and Yuri Denisyuk . SPIE Press Monograph, Orlando 2004, ISBN 0-8194-5019-7
Web links
- Obituary in the New York Times, Jan. 6, 2006
- For the presentation of the hologram by Leith and Upatnieks
- Obituary at Wayne State University
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Leith, Emmett |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Leith, Emmett Norman; Leith, Emmett N. |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American physicist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 12, 1927 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Detroit |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 23, 2005 |
| Place of death | Ann Arbor |