Friday 21 October 2011

Laser pioneer Anthony Siegman dies

you may not think the laser is important in your life, but think about it, no laser, No CD's, DVD's, Blue Ray

all of this was possible partly to Laser pioneer Anthony Siegman.

Siegman played a seminal role in the development of lasers and wrote some of the definitive texts on them. He is the author of Microwave Solid-State Masers (1964), An Introduction to Lasers and Masers (1972) and Lasers (1986). The last book, at nearly 1,300 pages, became the standard reference in the field.

Siegman invented the unstable resonator, which allows high laser power together with high beam quality. He is also internationally recognized for his contributions to the theory and practice of laser mode-locking, a technique that is widely used both for generating intense and short laser pulses and for metrology.

Stephen Harris, professor emeritus in electrical engineering and one of Siegman's first students, described him as "a blend of human warmth, scientific creativity and rigor."

"He is a model scientist," said Harris. "You would look far and wide to find a laser engineer or scientist who doesn't have Tony's book Lasers on his desk. He had a unique ability to blend mathematics and physical insight.

Next time you put on a DVD, think of Anthony

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