The Spotlight Report

Dr. Kashmira Nakhoda sat down to discuss her journey through optics. Kashmira shared her early work on metrology and scattering modeling of the DKIST 4.2 m primary mirror and how she progressed to X-Ray synchotron application metrology and design. She also explored what makes a lab group, or any group, great to be a part of, how to continue learning, and how she has arrived at her current position...

Dr. Travis Sawyer, Professor of Optical Sciences, Biomedical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Health Sciences, and Medicine, was kind enough to speak with me about how multimodal optical imaging can improve early cancer diagnosis in ovarian and esophageal cancers. Travis discusses existing diagnostic methods, the need for improved techniques and why OCT, two-photon imaging, and fl...

I spoke with Hyemin Yoo, who recently completed her dissertation on a combined Sine Condition/Deflectometry test method for optical alignment. Hyemin discusses the methodology in detail, starting with an introduction to the background of optical alignment, the sine condition test, and deflectometry. She then explores how to define a robust test approach, including simulations and as built test met...

Eric Goodwin wrote the Field Guide to Interferometric Testing, and now is the Director of Optical Sciences at Nikon Research Corporation of America. In his work, he has undoubtedly worked on cutting edge optical systems and products, providing him a unique insight into delivering reliable solutions at the forefront of optical products. Eric discusses his deep background in optical metrology and te...

Joel Berkson sat down to discuss forming his optical metrology company, Fringe Metrology. Joel discusses the ups and downs of creating a startup, why more people should try it, and how to evaluate a product market fit before diving in head first. Joel expands on how they have refined Fringe Metrology's product fit and offerings to meet market needs, particularly in the area of metrology for la...

Dr. Pearl John sat down to discuss her work in art, holography, and optics outreach. Pearl discusses her artwork, which touches upon both the very human side of time, memories, and relationships, as well as pieces that help to promote and explain complex science topics. Throughout her work, a common feature is the use of art, and holograms, to convey and speak to these concepts. In addition, or pe...

Wayne Geerling discusses his research and work in utilizing pop culture to engage students in introductory Economics courses. Pop culture, from Squid Game to Taylor Swift, can tell us quite a lot about various core economics concepts, and Dr. Geerling has leveraged the accessiblity and appeal of pop culture to engage early students, providing them with strong motivation to continue pursuits an oth...

NOTE: If you or someone you know has achromatic doublets they would donate to Bill for his street astronomy, reach out! Bill is looking for doublets and his contact info can be found at philly moon men, or you can comment below. This time we are joined by Bill Green, who was a founder of Philly Moon Men. Bill brought street astronomy to Philadelphia and found there was a lot of enthusiasm and wond...

This week I spoke with Donn Silberman, who first entered optics in 1976 as a high school student, getting involved in astronomy. Donn shared his insights from his career in optics, in not only engineering but also sales and management. Additionally, he discussed founding the Optics Institute of Southern California and his outreach work. We talked about how he has fostered outreach to get others of...

Dr. Eva Acosta sat down to share her research in the area of visual optics. She discussed how she entered the field of optics and specific visual optics, her work on wavefront coding, cataract imaging, and intraocular lenses. It was a pleasure to speak with Dr. Acosta and her work is not only incredibly interesting, but stands in that unique realm of also having very tangible benefits for humanity...

In this episode, I sat down with Heejoo Choi. Heejoo recently won the  Kevin P. Thompson Optical Design Innovator Award He won the award for an innovative UV cross-dispersion space telescope and engineering of a laser-truss LBT metrology system. He is currently an assistant research professor at the James C. Wyant College of Optical Sciences and an Optical Scientist at the Large Binocular Tel...

In this episode, I sat down with David Shafer. David has been creating incredible and cutting edge lens designs for decades; my first introduction to his work were his free slides he posted which looked like magic to me at the time. David discusses how he got into optics, his background in philosophy and how that guided his approach to optical design, and his optical design methodology. He also to...

In this episode, we do something a bit new, in that I am the person being interviewed by previous guest Kris Ford. I talk about my own perspectives on being a co-founder of ELE Optics, the general experience , fun, and stress of a startup. I do want to give warning this episode is lighter on technical aspects or science and instead focuses on our experience in business. Kris is an excellent interv...

In this episode, Bob Parks discusses his background in optics. For those who are not aware, Bob has been a key figure in the world of optics, being a force to establish using an auto-stigmatic microscope for all sorts of alignment and assembly of optical systems (and that is only a small portion of his contributions). Bob explains how he entered optics, his early experiences at the Kodak company a...

In this episode, Craig Ament discusses thin films and their near universal application in the optics industry. He comments on how he started his company, Arizona Thin Films, key considerations in incorporating films into a design, and what unique features his company provides. Craig also discusses some of the key lessons learned with regards to founding a company, and addressed common questions he...

I sat down with Dave Aikens and Eric Herman to discuss their recent book “Modern Optical Drawings: The ISO10110 Companion”, which they co-authored along with Richie Youngworth. I cannot recommend this book highly enough for those who need to get an optic made. It concisely serves as a companion reference book for when you need to know how to define certain aspects of your system, and it contains p...

This week I spoke with Dr. Shelby D V Ament, who is currently a senior optical scientist at Arizona Optical Metrology. Shelby discusses how she decided to enter optics, why art was an essential aspect of arriving into the field, and her dissertation work pairing holograms and solar energy. She also discusses her passion for optics outreach and teaching the community and younger generation about op...

This week we spoke with Erin McDermott, who has most recently created Odd Engineer, a service for companies to find experts in a field who they can quickly speak to for expert advice. Erin discusses how she got into optics, the many obstacles she faced along her career, and the stunning determination she has cultivated and maintained to get to where she is at now; namely being her own boss, and cr...

In this episode, Henry Quach, who is in his third year of the Wyant  College of Optics graduate program, discusses how his research has been  affected by COVID-19. This is a fascinating topic as we discuss how this  period of graduate school is already typically one of the more  challenging yet formative phases of a graduate program, and Henry  explores how the unique cons...

Our guest this week is Julius Muschaweck, who has an extensive and impressive background in illumination. He discusses his prior work in the field, the importance of LEDs, and his current work on fostering education on this overlooked area of physics and creating an active illumination community. I greatly enjoyed this conversation, Julius is clearly an expert in illumination, and is excellent and...

This week I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Araceli Venegas-Gomez. Araceli received her doctorate in Quantum Optics from the University of Strathclyde, and is the founder and CEO of Qureca, a company leading the way on creating and strengthening bridges between companies and the workforce in Quantum. We spoke in depth about how Araceli entered into quantum optics from being an aerospace engi...

We were extremely fortunate to have Dr. Pat Hagar sit down with us for this episode. Pat received his doctorate in polymer material science, which provided him with a strong science background for his 30 year career at the 3M Corporation. Pat discusses some of the applications of films and adhesives that he worked on during his time at 3M, what driving factors motivate innovation and product devel...

This week Dr. Kris Ford sat down to talk about his dissertation topic on plasma physics, and his life after graduate school. Dr. Ford received his PhD in nuclear physics studying plasma diagnostic methods. After graduating, he has gone on to lead an analytical chemistry lab studying and classifying cannabis products. Dr. Ford shares interesting insight regarding receiving feedback that your disser...

This month Dr. Heejoo Choi sat down to discus active and adaptive optics measures utilized in a range of astronomical telescopes. Specifically, Dr. Choi’s work brings him into frequent contact with a unique subset of astronomical optics known as ‘extremely large telescopes’, which are designated as having a clear aperture larger than 10 meters. Dr. Choi explains what some of the tools and devices...

Henry Quach is in the graduate program for optical sciences, where he is pursuing his PhD. Henry has been an avid learner and fabricator in the 3D printing realm, both as a hobby and for research projects. He walks us through some of the cutting edge 3D printing technologies that have emerged, and explores what this means for rapid prototyping both in a research and industry application. Finally,...