2024 Emmett N. Leith Medal Winner

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Optica Names Ting-Chung Poon the 2024 Emmet N. Leith Medal Recipient

Optica is pleased to announce that Ting-Chung Poon, Virginia Tech, USA, has been selected as the 2024 recipient of the Emmet N. Leith Medal. Poon is honored for seminal contributions to digital holography and optical information processing.

Poon received his MS and PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Iowa, USA. He is currently a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech. His research interests include information optics and digital holography.

A leading scientist in the field of optical signal processing, Poon’s contributions reach far beyond the lab through his books and publications, including Optical Scanning Holography with MATLAB (Springer, 2007) and Modern Information Optics with MATLAB (Cambridge University Press and Higher Education Press, China, 2023, co-author Yaping Zhang).

He served as Division Editor of Applied Optics, Associate Editor-in-Chief of Chinese Optics Letters, and is currently Specialty Chief Editor of Frontiers in Photonics, and Editor of Applied Sciences. He was the founding Chair of the Optica Digital Holography and 3-D Imaging (DH) Topical Meeting and served as General Chair of Optica’s Annual Meeting, Frontier in Optics. Poon is a Life Fellow of the IEEE, a Fellow of Optica, SPIE, and the Institute of Physics. His other awards include the Dennis Gabor Award of the SPIE.

Established in 2006 the Leith Medal recognizes seminal contributions to the field of optical information processing. In assessing the significance of the contribution, consideration is given to all aspects including theoretical and conceptual breakthroughs as well as practical applications. It honors Emmett N. Leith, a world-renowned scientist in holography and optical information processing, and is endowed by General Dynamics, the University of Michigan College of Engineering, USA, Physical Optics Corporation and individual contributors, including Alexander Sawchuk, Joseph Goodman, James R. Fienup, G. Michael Morris, Tom Cathey and James Wyant.

About Optica

Optica, Advancing Optics and Photonics Worldwide, is the society dedicated to promoting the generation, application, archiving and dissemination of knowledge in the field. Founded in 1916, it is the leading organization for scientists, engineers, business professionals, students and others interested in the science of light. Optica’s renowned publications, meetings, online resources and in-person activities fuel discoveries, shape real-life applications and accelerate scientific, technical and educational achievement.

Photo Credit: Ben Murphy of ECE Virginia Tech