Joseph J.M. Braat (born 5 November 1946) is a Dutch

optical engineer Optical engineering is the field of science and engineering encompassing the physical phenomena and technologies associated with the generation, transmission, manipulation, detection, and utilization of light. Optical engineers use optics to solve ...

and scientist. Between 1973 and 1998 he worked at Philips Research Laboratories. He was professor of

optics Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultraviole ...

at Delft University of Technology between 1998 and 2008.

Career

Braat was born in

Breda Breda () is a city and municipality in the southern part of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Brabant. The name derived from ''brede Aa'' ('wide Aa' or 'broad Aa') and refers to the confluence of the rivers Mark and Aa. Breda has ...

on 5 November 1946. He studied physics at Delft University of Technology. After his graduation he moved to France to work at the coherent optics group of Serge Lowenthal at the

Institut d'Optique The Institut d'optique Graduate School ("Institute of optics"), nicknamed SupOptique or IOGS, is one of the most prestigious French Grandes Ecoles and the leading French ''grande école'' in the field of Optics and its industrial and scientific ap ...

in Orsay. His PhD thesis was on holography using spatially incoherent light. In 1973 Braat returned to the Netherlands to work at Philips Research Laboratories. There he contributed to early research on

optical disc In computing and optical disc recording technologies, an optical disc (OD) is a flat, usually circular disc that encodes binary data (bits) in the form of pits and lands on a special material, often aluminum, on one of its flat surfaces. ...

systems. During this period he developed a theory together with Harold Hopkins and Gijs Bouwhuis on the read-out of optical discs through

diffraction of light Diffraction is defined as the interference or bending of waves around the corners of an obstacle or through an aperture into the region of geometrical shadow of the obstacle/aperture. The diffracting object or aperture effectively becomes a s ...

by the information carrying disc structure. He also contributed to the design of light paths for optical disc systems. At Philips Research Laboratories Braat contributed to lens and

system design Systems design interfaces, and data for an electronic control system to satisfy specified requirements. System design could be seen as the application of system theory to product development. There is some overlap with the disciplines of system an ...

for early photolithographic systems by Philips and ASML. In 1988 Braat became a part-time professor of geometrical optics at Delft University of Technology. In 1998 he became a full professor of

. During this time he performed research on

extreme ultraviolet lithography Extreme ultraviolet lithography (also known as EUV or EUVL) is an optical lithography technology used in steppers, machines that make integrated circuits (ICs) for computers and other electronic devices. It uses a range of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) ...

, optical aperture synthesis for astronomy, high density

optical recording The history of optical recording can be divided into a few number of distinct major contributions. The pioneers of optical recording worked mostly independently, and their solutions to the many technical challenges have very distinctive features, su ...

, Extended Nijboer-Zernike theory and

Terahertz imaging Terahertz nondestructive evaluation pertains to devices, and techniques of analysis occurring in the terahertz domain of electromagnetic radiation. These devices and techniques evaluate the properties of a material, component or system without cau ...

. In 1991 Braat was one of the founders of the

European Optical Society The European Optical Society (EOS), founded in 1991, is a European organisation for the development of the science of optics. Membership is open to national optical societies, individuals, companies, organisations, educational institutions, and lear ...

. From 2004 to 2006 he served as its President. Braat retired as professor in 2008. In 1994 Braat won the Edward Longstreth Medal for Computer and Cognitive Science of the Franklin Institute for "contributions to optical data recording and design of aspherical objective lenses for read-out systems of optical storage". Braat was elected a member of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...

in 2001. He became a Fellow of the European Optical Society in 2012. Braat has been attributed 60 US patents.

Bibliography

Braat is the author or co-author of some 150 scientific publications. His main work is the 1000-page textbook ''Imaging Optics,'' which also contains contribution from second author Peter Török.

Books

* G. Bouwhuis, J. Braat, A. Huijser, J. Pasman, G. van Rosmalen, K.A.S. Immink, ''Principles of Optical Disc Systems'', Hilger, Bristol, UK (1985). * J. Braat, P. Török, ''Imaging Optics'', Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK (2019).

References

External links

Profile at Delft University of TechnologyProfile at KNAWExtended Nijboer-Zernike theory
{{DEFAULTSORT:Braat, Joseph 1946 births Living people Delft University of Technology alumni Delft University of Technology faculty Dutch engineers Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Optical engineers People from Breda