Two Photonics Researchers at Phillips Win Awards

Charles T. Troy

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Janet S. Fender, the technical director of the US Air Force Phillips Laboratory's Optical Sensing Div. and 1997 president-elect of the Optical Society of America, has been presented with the 1996 Trailblazer Award by New Mexico's Commission on the Status of Women.

Fender was the first woman to receive a doctorate at the University of Arizona's Optical Sciences Center and, in 1987, was named US Department of Defense Woman Scientist of the Year. She has been selected by the White House's Office of Science and Technology as a representative to a United Nations working group for disarmament.

The Trailblazer Award is given yearly to women deemed pioneers in traditionally male-dominated professions.

Another Phillips scientist, Robert Fugate, was honored by Iowa State University with its Distinguished Achievement Citation for his pioneering work in laser guide-star adaptive optics. Fugate, the technical director of the lab's Starfire Optical Range, developed a technique using adaptive optics to compensate for fuzzy astronomical telescope images. He earned his doctorate from Iowa State in 1970 and is the first physics graduate to win this citation.