James Ray Fienup is an American optical scientist. He is the Robert E. Hopkins Professor of Optics at the Institute of Optics at the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The University of Roc ...

, where he researches imaging science. Fienup was the editor-in-chief of the '' Journal of the Optical Society of America'' from 1998 to 2003.

Early life and education

Fienup was born in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

. He attended the

College of the Holy Cross The College of the Holy Cross is a private, Jesuit liberal arts college in Worcester, Massachusetts, about 40 miles (64 km) west of Boston. Founded in 1843, Holy Cross is the oldest Catholic college in New England and one of the oldest ...

, where he graduated in 1970 with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

(B.A.), ''

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some So ...

'', in physics and mathematics. Fienup then pursued graduate studies at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

as a fellow for the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

. He obtained a

Master of Science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...

(M.S.) from Stanford in applied physics in 1972 then a

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

(Ph.D.) in the field in 1975. His dissertation was titled "Improved synthesis and computational methods for computer-generated holograms" and was supervised by

Joseph W. Goodman Joseph Wilfred Goodman is an American electrical engineer and physicist. Education Goodman received a Bachelor of Arts degree in engineering and applied physics from Harvard University in 1958 and Master of Science and PhD degrees in electrica ...

Career

After serving as a research assistant at the Stanford Electronics Laboratories, Fienup became a senior scientist at the

Environmental Research Institute of Michigan The Environmental Research Institute of Michigan (ERIM) was a research institute at Ann Arbor, Michigan, founded in 1972. The institute contributed to the development of remote sensing, radar, and holography. ERIM grew out of a military and envir ...

in July 1975. He remained there until June 2002, when he assumed a position at the

as its Robert E. Hopkins Professor of Optics. Fienup is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fienup, James College of the Holy Cross alumni University of Rochester faculty Stanford University alumni People from St. Louis Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American opticians