Fellow Erwin G. Loewen was born in Germany and emigrated to the United States in 1938. He received a BMechE degree from New York University in 1941 and then served in the Army Corps of Engineers during World War II, where he achieved the rank of Staff Sergeant. Following the war, he pursued further study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). While at MIT, Loewen received MS, MMechE, and DSc degrees and stayed on as an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering for three years.

Loewen directed the Grating Laboratory at Bausch & Lomb for over 25 years and continued his career at Milton Roy from which he retired in 1987. While at Bausch & Lomb, he led a team focused on the development of diffraction grating ruling and replication. Loewen taught at the University of Rochester’s Institute of Optics after leaving his position at Milton Roy and was an adjunct professor until 1997.

Over the course of his career, he published extensively including co-authoring Diffraction Gratings and Applications with Evgeny Popov in 1997 and many articles on gratings and metrology. Loewen received numerous awards such as the David Richardson Medal and Joseph Fraunhofer Award/Robert M. Burley Prize, Rochester Engineer of the Year Award and the Technology Award from the Rochester Chamber of Commerce. He also served as President of the Rochester Section of OSA and two terms on the advisory panel for the National Bureau of Standards, now the National Institute of Standards and Technology.