Five OSA Members Elected to National Academy of Engineers

WASHINGTON, Feb. 12 – Three Optical Society of America (OSA) members were named new members of the National Academy of Engineers (NAE) and two OSA members were named NAE foreign associates last week. Being elected to the NAE is one of the highest professional honors in the engineering community.

Harold Gene Craighead of Cornell University was selected for his contributions to the fabrication and exploitation of nanostructures for electronic, optical, mechanical, and biological applications.

Robert M. Gray of Stanford University was chosen for his contributions to information theory and data compression.

James Clair Wyant of the College of Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona was chosen for his work in the development of interferometric optical measurement techniques with nanometer precision for use in production environments.

Kenichi Iga of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science was selected as a foreign associate for his contributions to advanced optoelectronics, including the vertical-cavity surface-emitting injection laser.

Arnold Migus of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris was chosen as a foreign associate for his contributions to ultrafast and ultrahigh intensity lasers and their applications, especially to fast ignition for inertial confinement fusion.

According to the NAE, Academy membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to ‘engineering research, practice, or education, including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering literature,’ and to the ‘pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education.’

About OSA

Uniting more than 70,000 professionals from 134 countries, the Optical Society of America (OSA) brings together the global optics community through its programs and initiatives. Since 1916 OSA has worked to advance the common interests of the field, providing educational resources to the scientists, engineers and business leaders who work in the field by promoting the science of light and the advanced technologies made possible by optics and photonics. OSA publications, events, technical groups and programs foster optics knowledge and scientific collaboration among all those with an interest in optics and photonics.