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Holography Pioneer Passes Away

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the obi-wan-you're-our-only-hope dept.

Hal-9001 writes "The New York Times has an article on Emmett Leith, professor of electrical engineering at the University of Michigan and inventor of three-dimensional holography, who passed away on Dec. 23, 2005. Professor Leith and his coworker Juris Upatnieks displayed the world's first three-dimensional hologram at a conference of the Optical Society of America in 1964."

11 of 54 comments (clear)

  1. He didn't pass away by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    He's no longer creating an interference pattern with the living.

  2. holomed unit activated by User+956 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Please state the nature of the medical emergency.

    --
    The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
  3. Holography museum by dada21 · · Score: 3, Informative

    I know this is a bit off topic, but since the news is a bit old and I wanted to mention this weeks ago, I figure the slashdotters will like it.

    The Museum of Holography is an awesome visit if you come to Chicago for any reason. It is minutes outside of downtown and half hour from O'hare. It is really an interesting place (a bit commercialized lately) and the greatest thing is it completely passed the Wife Acceptance Factor as Oprah's HARPO studios is just down the street. Drop the lady off at their store and hit the Museum of Holography.

  4. DIY Holograms by maxrate · · Score: 3, Insightful
    I was speaking to a friend about a kit I saw 10 years ago at a local science store that let one build they're own holograms. Anyone seen anything like this recently?

    It came with a bunch of optics, a laser, sandbox, film, etc. I wonder if Bill Gates was bored one weekend and started shooting the laser at some of his Windows XP cd-roms?! Those CD's are incredible, they are one big hologram!

    1. Re:DIY Holograms by castoridae · · Score: 2, Informative

      Check out Integraf HOLOKITS. Or google "holography kits" - there's plenty.

  5. In other news by Rude+Turnip · · Score: 3, Funny

    A man with a letter "H" on his forehead was seen walking away.

    --
    Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
  6. Re:sad news :( by Doug+Merritt · · Score: 4, Informative
    Sad, yes, but to correct the submission:
    inventor of three-dimensional holography

    No, as the article says, Dennis Gabor invented holography and coined the term "hologram", in 1948.

    Leith created the first laser holograph, which was a big deal, and made holographs vastly more practical, and he deserves tons of credit for that, but not the same as inventing the field. There's a reason Gabor won a Nobel prize.

    --
    Professional Wild-Eyed Visionary
  7. Conventional wisdom says by icepick72 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Holigraphists don't die, they just gradually fade away.

  8. A history of holography by k-zed · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Here's an article about the history of holography:
    http://www.holophile.com/history.htm
    Besides Leith and others, it mentions Dennis Gabor, who originally developed the theory behind it all, in 1947.

    --
    we discovered a new way to think.
  9. Good teacher, great hologram collection by mfago · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I was lucky enough to have Prof Leith teach my optics class at Michigan about 10 years ago. At one point, he took the entire class over to his lab to show his latest work as well as share his outstanding personal holography collection. Still recall the 20"x30" self-portrait he received from a Soviet scientist: amazingly crisp and clear (used Dichromated gelatin rather than film). Always had stories to tell...

  10. Re:sad news :( by Hal-9001 · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Sad, yes, but to correct the submission:
    inventor of three-dimensional holography
    No, as the article says, Dennis Gabor invented holography and coined the term "hologram", in 1948.
    My original statement is correct because of the words I have emphasized in bold face. Gabor only made holograms of two-dimensional objects (specifically of a transparency of the words "Hugyens", "Young", and "Fresnel" and of a transparent protractor). Admittedly part of the reason for this was because of the lack of a light source with the coherence length available from a laser, but part of the reason is because his method of recording holograms had a serious problem known as the "twin-image" problem. As a result, the development of holography stagnated until Prof. Leith invented a method for solving this problem. If you want to play semantic games regarding the exact meaning of the word "inventor", go ahead, but it is an indisputable fact that Leith and Upatnieks demonstrated the first three-dimensional hologram.
    There's a reason Gabor won a Nobel prize.
    I don't dispute this, but there is a less fortunate reason why Prof. Leith did not receive a share of the prize. A professor at Michigan who had a personal dislike for Prof. Leith (and who in fact tried repeatedly to steal credit for work that had actually been done by Prof. Leith) actively campaigned against giving Prof. Leith a share of the Nobel Prize. Despite this, Prof. Leith is actually mentioned by name in the speech awarding the Nobel Prize to Gabor, a highly-unusual (if not unique) occurrence in the history of the Nobel Prize.
    --
    "It take 9 months to bear a child, no matter how many women you assign to the job."