Stephen A. Benton

Stephen A. Benton

Stephen A. Benton (born December 1, 1941 in San Francisco , California , † November 9, 2003 in Massachusetts ) was an American physicist. He grew up in Santa Barbara, California. His interest in optics and 3D techniques awoke at the age of 11 when he first put on 3D glasses and watched the movie The House of Wax .

He completed his BS (Bachelor of Science) exam in 1963 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as an electronics engineer and worked there with the strobe pioneer Harold "Doc" Edgerton in the "Strobe Lab". In 1964 he received his MS (Master of Science) in engineering and in 1968 his Ph. D. (Doctor of Philosophy in Applied Physics) from Harvard University .

In 1968, Benton developed the technology for the production of white-light rainbow holograms , which enabled the mass production of embossed holograms for the first time. The rainbow hologram is therefore also referred to as a "Benton hologram".

Benton was a lecturer at Harvard University until 1973, then worked at Polaroid Corp. until 1982. in Edwin Land's "Vision Research Laboratory".

In 1982 he founded the Spatial Imaging Group and in 1984 the MIT Media Lab . He is a co-founder of MIT's "Media Arts & Science" program between 1987 and 1994. He was a board member of the Museum of Holography in New York and, from 1990, a board member of the International Society of Optical Engineering ( SPIE ).

In 1996 he became director of the Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS) at MIT. In 1999 he became Vice President of the Society for Imaging Science & Technology.

Benton once described holography as a true interdisciplinary section of art, science and technology and is considered one of the world's leading pioneers of holography. Stephen A. Benton died on November 9, 2003 at Massachusetts General Hospital at the age of 61.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Announcement from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) on the occasion of the death of Stephen Benton (English)