People In The News

Photonic crystal fiber inventor Philip Russell was elected as The Optical Society’s (OSA) 2013 vice president. He is the founding director of Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Erlangen, Germany, and the founding chair of the OSA Topical Meeting on Bragg Gratings, Photosensitivity and Poling in Glass Waveguides.

Shuji Nakamura, a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, since 2000, was honored recently as the 2012 Inventor of the Year by the Silicon Valley Intellectual Property Law Association for inventions including the blue LED as well as for his intellectual property protection efforts.

Veeco Instruments Inc. CEO John R. Peeler has joined the board of fiber laser company IPG Photonics Corp. in Oxford, Mass. He joined Veeco in 2007 and was named board chairman in May 2012.

Spectroscopy products maker Avantes BV of Apeldoorn, Netherlands, has named Robert Hukshorn as its new director of sales and marketing. His international sales and marketing experience includes management positions at several high-tech companies, including Amcor and Henkel.

Ira Tiffen is the new vice president of the Motion Picture Filters Div. at Schneider Optics Inc. of Van Nuys, Calif. He has four decades of experience in developing specialized optics for the film, television and still-photography markets. At his own company, Optefex LLC, he developed the Optefex Blue Streak filter line, which he will bring to Schneider.

University of Arizona astronomer and optical physicist Olivier Guyon has been selected as a MacArthur Fellow for 2012. He won this fellowship, nicknamed the “Genius Grant,” from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for his breakthrough imaging technique for finding Earth-like planets outside of our solar system.