Henri Arsenault
About Optica
In Memoriam: Henri Arsenault, 1937-2026
14 July 2026
Optica Fellow Henri Arsenault passed away on 14 July 2026, at age 88. Arsenault was an internationally renowned scholar and a founding member of the Centre for Optics, Photonics and Lasers at the Université Laval. Arsenault was recognized as an OSA Fellow in 1986 for influencing the development of speckle optics and for evolving optical/digital pattern recognition, introducing the rotation invariant filters.
Henri Arsenault, Ph.D., was Professor Emeritus in the Department of Physics at Université Laval. He was the husband of Mrs. Mireille Leblanc and the son of the late Évangéline Leblanc and the late Alphonse Arsenault of Dieppe, New Brunswick. Arsenault was active in SPIE, serving as its President in 1996. He served on numerous committees and conference programs throughout his career and was an SPIE Fellow. He was an OSA Emeritus Member and held leadership roles within OSA, including serving on the Publications Council (1985-2000), the Executive Committee of the Science and Engineering Council (1992-1993), and the Max Born Award Committee (1984-1987).
Arsenault is survived by his wife, Mireille; his children, François (Esther Fortier) and Jean-Pierre (Annik Lavoie); his grandchildren, Laurent, Claudie, Béatrice, and Louis-Félix; his sisters, Liliane (the late Albert Barnabé) and Lucille; his sister-in-law, Maryse Leblanc (Alain Crête); and his nieces, nephews, aunt, cousins, and other relatives and friends.
Aresnault will be remembered as an internationally recognized researcher and a dedicated mentor to dozens of students. He had an insatiable intellectual curiosity and a lasting impact on the future of the global photonics community.
Optica mourns the loss of Henri Arsenault.
