The Institute of Optics is a

department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

and research center 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 ...

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...

. The institute grants degrees at the

bachelor's A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ye ...

master's A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

and doctoral levels through the University of Rochester School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Since its founding, the institute has granted over 2,500 degrees in optics, making up about half of the degrees awarded in the field in the United States. The institute is made up of 20 full-time

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

s, 12 professors with joint appointments in other departments, 10

adjunct professor An adjunct professor is a type of academic appointment in higher education who does not work at the establishment full-time. The terms of this appointment and the job security of the tenure vary in different parts of the world, however the genera ...

s, 5 research scientists, 11 staff, about 170

undergraduate student Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, in the United States, an entry- ...

s and about 110

graduate student Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate ( bachelor's) degree. The organization and stru ...

History

Founded in 1929, through a grant from

Eastman Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...

and

Bausch and Lomb Bausch + Lomb is an eye health products company based in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada. It is one of the world's largest suppliers of contact lenses, lens care products, pharmaceuticals, intraocular lenses, and other eye surgery products. The compan ...

, the institute is the oldest

educational program An educational program is a program written by the institution or ministry of education which determines the learning progress of each subject in all the stages of formal education. See also *Philosophy of education *Curriculum In education, ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

devoted to

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 ...

. During World War I, many American defense companies relied heavily on German optics. The need for an American-based institution of optical training became apparent when the flow of German imports, including optics, attenuated. The Institute of Optics has long been deeply involved in American optics study and research. The

Optical Society of America Optica (formerly known as The Optical Society (OSA) and before that as the Optical Society of America) is a professional society of individuals and companies with an interest in optics and photonics. It publishes journals and organizes conference ...

was founded in 1916 by 30 optical scientists and instrument makers based in Rochester. The proximity of Rochester to many optical companies has provided an excellent environment for collaboration with industry, as well as funding for research. Companies have in the past included

Xerox Xerox Holdings Corporation (; also known simply as Xerox) is an American corporation that sells print and electronic document, digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut (ha ...

and

but the institute's Industrial Associates has expanded to include nearly 50 companies. Notable local members include

Optimax Optimax is a laser eye treatment specialist based in Birmingham, England, owned by Russell Keith Ambrose. Optimax was established as one of the first private clinics to offer laser eye surgery. Laser eye surgery in the UK is dominated by three ...

Corning Inc Corning Incorporated is an American multinational technology company that specializes in specialty glass, ceramics, and related materials and technologies including advanced optics, primarily for industrial and scientific applications. The co ...

and

L3Harris L3Harris Technologies (L3Harris) is an American technology company, defense contractor, and information technology services provider that produces C6ISR systems and products, wireless equipment, tactical radios, avionics and electronic systems, ...

. Altogether there are over 100 companies in the Rochester NY and

Finger Lakes The Finger Lakes are a group of eleven long, narrow, roughly north–south lakes located south of Lake Ontario in an area called the ''Finger Lakes region'' in New York, in the United States. This region straddles the northern and transitional ...

region for whom optics, photonics, and lasers are a central part of the business. The Institute of Optics occupied the top floor of Bausch and Lomb Hall from 1931 to 1977. Currently, the institute is primarily housed in the Wilmot Building on the River Campus of the University of Rochester; construction began in 1961 with support from

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

, as well as other buildings and centers, including the

Laboratory for Laser Energetics The Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) is a scientific research facility which is part of the University of Rochester's south campus, located in Brighton, New York. The lab was established in 1970 and its operations since then have been fund ...

. The institute successfully expanded into the new

Robert B. Goergen Robert B. Goergen is a corporate executive, entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is the founder, chairman and CEO of Blyth, Inc. He is also the founder and chairman of The Ropart Group, a private-equity investment firm. Goergen was a member of ...

Hall for Biomedical Engineering and Optics, which was completed in March 2007 and was dedicated on May 17, 2007.University of Rochester: Office of the President: Diversity Task Force Report:
State of the University Presentation to the Faculty Senate In 2018, Donna Strickland, became the institute's first alumnus to become a Nobel laureate, winning the

Nobel Prize in Physics ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...

with former institute professor

Gérard Mourou Gérard Albert Mourou (; born 22 June 1944) is a French scientist and pioneer in the field of electrical engineering and lasers. He was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physics in 2018, along with Donna Strickland, for the invention of chirped pulse a ...

Academic programs

The Institute of Optics has been granting degrees in optics since its founding in 1929. Beginning with a BS program that included foundational physics, optical design and engineering, optical physics, and medical optics, the program eventually expanded to include MS and PhD programs. The first graduate of the institute was Arthur Ingalls (BS 1932). The first graduate of the MS and PhD programs was Robert E. Hopkins, who later became a professor and director of the institute. Now part of the Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the institute continues to offer BS, MS and PhD degrees and has an enrollment of about 300 students. Students go on to careers in optical engineering, optical physics, entrepreneurship, biomedical sciences, and a variety of other career paths.

Notable faculty

* Professor and former Director Duncan Moore: Former President of Optica, Pioneer in the field of

gradient index optics Gradient-index (GRIN) optics is the branch of optics covering optical effects produced by a gradient of the refractive index of a material. Such gradual variation can be used to produce lenses with flat surfaces, or lenses that do not have the ab ...

and leader in technical entrepreneurship. * Professor and former Director Xicheng Zhang: Pioneer in the field of teraHertz technology. * Professor and former Director P. Scott Carney: Pioneer in the field of

physical optics In physics, physical optics, or wave optics, is the branch of optics that studies interference, diffraction, polarization, and other phenomena for which the ray approximation of geometric optics is not valid. This usage tends not to include effec ...

with notable contributions to

biomedical optics Medical optical imaging is the use of light as an investigational imaging technique for medical applications. Examples include optical microscopy, spectroscopy, endoscopy, scanning laser ophthalmoscopy, laser Doppler imaging, and optical coherence ...

. * Professor and former Director Wayne H. Knox: Former Director of the Advanced Photonics Research Department at

Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...

and pioneer in

ultrafast optics In optics, an ultrashort pulse, also known as an ultrafast event, is an electromagnetic pulse whose time duration is of the order of a picosecond (10−12 second) or less. Such pulses have a broadband optical spectrum, and can be created by m ...

and

femtosecond laser Mode locking is a technique in optics by which a laser can be made to produce pulses of light of extremely short duration, on the order of picoseconds (10−12 s) or femtoseconds (10−15 s). A laser operated in this way is sometimes r ...

ophthalmology. * Professor and current director Thomas G. Brown: Noted for the study of unconventional polarization states of light and leader in AIM Photonics. * Professor Govind Agrawal: Pioneer and highly cited author in

Optical Communications Optical communication, also known as optical telecommunication, is communication at a distance using light to carry information. It can be performed visually or by using electronic devices. The earliest basic forms of optical communication date b ...

Optical Fibers An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means ...

, and

Nonlinear Optics Nonlinear optics (NLO) is the branch of optics that describes the behaviour of light in ''nonlinear media'', that is, media in which the polarization density P responds non-linearly to the electric field E of the light. The non-linearity is typica ...

. * Professor Robert W. Boyd: Pioneer and highly cited author in

non-linear optics Nonlinear optics (NLO) is the branch of optics that describes the behaviour of light in ''nonlinear media'', that is, media in which the polarization density P responds non-linearly to the electric field E of the light. The non-linearity is typica ...

and

quantum optics Quantum optics is a branch of atomic, molecular, and optical physics dealing with how individual quanta of light, known as photons, interact with atoms and molecules. It includes the study of the particle-like properties of photons. Photons have b ...

. * Professor David Williams: Former director of the Center for Visual Science, pioneer in the use of adaptive optics for retinal imaging. * Professor Susana Marcos: Current director of the Center for Visual Science, pioneer in

vision science Vision science is the scientific study of visual perception. Researchers in vision science can be called vision scientists, especially if their research spans some of the science's many disciplines. Vision science encompasses all studies of vision ...

and engineering. * Professor Joseph H. Eberly: Pioneer in the field of

, former President of the

, and founding editor of

Optics Express ''Optics Express'' is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Optica. It was established in 1997. The journal reports on scientific and technology innovations in all aspects of optics and photonics. The Energy Express supplement ...

, the first open access publication in optics. * Professor James Zavislan: Professor of Optics, Biomedical Engineering and Ophthalmology. * Professor James Fienup: Pioneer in optical imaging and

phase retrieval Phase retrieval is the process of algorithmically finding solutions to the phase problem. Given a complex signal F(k), of amplitude , F (k), , and phase \psi(k): ::F(k) = , F(k), e^ =\int_^ f(x)\ e^\,dx where ''x'' is an ''M''-dimensional spatia ...

. * Professor Chunlei Guo: Pioneer in

processing of materials. * Professor Andrew Berger: Award-winning educator and expert in

. * Professor Julie Bentley : Award-winning educator and expert in

optical design Optical lens design is the process of designing a lens to meet a set of performance requirements and constraints, including cost and manufacturing limitations. Parameters include surface profile types (spherical, aspheric, holographic, diffractive, ...

. * Professor Jannick Rolland: Director of the Center for Freeform Optics and the Robert E. Hopkins Center for Optical Design and Engineering. * Former Professor Susan Houde-Walter: Former President of Optica, Entrepreneur, Pioneer in the field of optical materials. * Former Professor and Director Dennis G. Hall: Pioneer in the field of guided-wave optics and

electromagnetic theory In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge. It is the second-strongest of the four fundamental interactions, after the strong force, and it is the dominant force in the interactions of a ...

and was among the first to predict the emergence of

silicon photonics Silicon photonics is the study and application of photonic systems which use silicon as an optical medium. The silicon is usually patterned with sub-micrometre precision, into microphotonic components. These operate in the infrared, most comm ...

. * Former Professor and Interim Director

Ian Walmsley Ian Alexander Walmsley FRS is Provost of Imperial College London where he is also Chair of Experimental Physics. He was previously pro-vice-chancellor for research and Hooke Professor of Experimental Physics at the University of Oxford, and a ...

: Pioneer in

Quantum Optics Quantum optics is a branch of atomic, molecular, and optical physics dealing with how individual quanta of light, known as photons, interact with atoms and molecules. It includes the study of the particle-like properties of photons. Photons have b ...

, co-invented

Spectral phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction In ultrafast optics, spectral phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction (SPIDER) is an ultrashort pulse measurement technique originally developed by Chris Iaconis and Ian Walmsley. The basics SPIDER is an interferometric ultr ...

(SPIDER), formerly of the University of Oxford Department of Physics, currently Provost of Imperial College (London UK). * Former Professor Lukas Novotny: Pioneer in

nano-optics Nanophotonics or nano-optics is the study of the behavior of light on the nanometer scale, and of the interaction of nanometer-scale objects with light. It is a branch of optics, optical engineering, electrical engineering, and nanotechnology. ...

. * Professor emeritus Carlos Stroud: Pioneer in the field of

and

Quantum Information Quantum information is the information of the state of a quantum system. It is the basic entity of study in quantum information theory, and can be manipulated using quantum information processing techniques. Quantum information refers to both th ...

. * Professor emeritus and former Director Nicholas George: Pioneer in

and electronic imaging. * Late Professor

Leonard Mandel Leonard Mandel (May 9, 1927 – February 9, 2001) was an American physicist who contributed to the development of theoretical and experimental modern optics and is widely considered one of the founding fathers of the field of quantum optics. With ...

: Pioneer in the field of

, first demonstrated

photon A photon () is an elementary particle that is a quantum of the electromagnetic field, including electromagnetic radiation such as light and radio waves, and the force carrier for the electromagnetic force. Photons are massless, so they always ...

self interference, discovered the Mandel Formula. * Late Professor

Rudolf Kingslake Rudolf Kingslake (born Rudolf Klickmann; August 28, 1903 – February 28, 2003)http://www.osa-opn.org/Content/ViewFile.aspx?id=2425 was an English academic, lens designer, and engineer. Kingslake was born in London, England in 1903 as Rudolf ...

: Pioneer in the field of lens design, founding faculty member. * Late Professor Robert E. Hopkins: Pioneer in the field of

optical engineering 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 ...

, former director and founder of Tropel Corporation. * Late Professor M. Parker Givens: Director of the institute from 1975 to 1977 * Late Professor Stephen Jacobs: Pioneer in

Liquid Crystals Liquid crystal (LC) is a state of matter whose properties are between those of conventional liquids and those of solid crystals. For example, a liquid crystal may flow like a liquid, but its molecules may be oriented in a crystal-like way. Th ...

, and in Magneto-Rheological Finishing. * Late Professor

Emil Wolf Emil Wolf (July 30, 1922 – June 2, 2018) was a Czech-born American physicist who made advancements in physical optics, including diffraction, coherence properties of optical fields, spectroscopy of partially coherent radiation, and the theory ...

: Pioneer in the field of coherence theory and

, predicted the Wolf Effect. * Late Professor and former Director Kenneth Teegarden: Pioneer in

exciton An exciton is a bound state of an electron and an electron hole which are attracted to each other by the electrostatic Coulomb force. It is an electrically neutral quasiparticle that exists in insulators, semiconductors and some liquids. The ...

physics and color centers.

Research areas

Biomedical optics Medical optical imaging is the use of light as an investigational imaging technique for medical applications. Examples include optical microscopy, spectroscopy, endoscopy, scanning laser ophthalmoscopy, laser Doppler imaging, and optical coherence ...

* Coherence theory *

Fiber optic An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means to ...

s *

Quantum optics Quantum optics is a branch of atomic, molecular, and optical physics dealing with how individual quanta of light, known as photons, interact with atoms and molecules. It includes the study of the particle-like properties of photons. Photons have b ...

Laser physics Laser science or laser physics is a branch of optics that describes the theory and practice of lasers. Laser science is principally concerned with quantum electronics, laser construction, optical cavity design, the physics of producing a popul ...

* Polarization *

Non-linear optics Nonlinear optics (NLO) is the branch of optics that describes the behaviour of light in ''nonlinear media'', that is, media in which the polarization density P responds non-linearly to the electric field E of the light. The non-linearity is typica ...

*Laser-based

nuclear fusion Nuclear fusion is a reaction in which two or more atomic nuclei are combined to form one or more different atomic nuclei and subatomic particles ( neutrons or protons). The difference in mass between the reactants and products is manifest ...

Nanotechnology Nanotechnology, also shortened to nanotech, is the use of matter on an atomic, molecular, and supramolecular scale for industrial purposes. The earliest, widespread description of nanotechnology referred to the particular technological goal o ...

*Integrated Photonics especially

Silicon Photonics Silicon photonics is the study and application of photonic systems which use silicon as an optical medium. The silicon is usually patterned with sub-micrometre precision, into microphotonic components. These operate in the infrared, most comm ...

Vision Science Vision science is the scientific study of visual perception. Researchers in vision science can be called vision scientists, especially if their research spans some of the science's many disciplines. Vision science encompasses all studies of vision ...

and Vision Engineering *

Optical Engineering 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 ...

* Freeform Optics *

Optical Design Optical lens design is the process of designing a lens to meet a set of performance requirements and constraints, including cost and manufacturing limitations. Parameters include surface profile types (spherical, aspheric, holographic, diffractive, ...

and

Optical Metrology 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, ultravio ...

References

External links

The Institute of Optics

Center for Optics Manufacturing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Institute Of Optics University of Rochester Optics institutions Educational institutions established in 1929 1929 establishments in New York (state)