Emil Wolf, a longtime 人妻少妇专区 professor whose pioneering theories connected fundamental equations describing electromagnetism to the observable properties of light, has died at age 95.聽He is survived by his son Bruno and daughter Paula and his beloved wife Marlies.
One of the most recognized optical scientists of his generation, Wolf, the Wilson Professor of Optical Physics at Rochester, was a leading expert in coherence and polarization of optical fields. His , co-written with Nobel laureate Max Born at the University of Edinburgh, is the most cited textbook in physics. His text written with fellow giant of optics and paragon of Rochester physics, Len Mandel, is a modern classic, demonstrating the unparalleled longevity and staying power of Wolf鈥檚 contributions.
鈥淓mil was essential to physics for the past seven decades,鈥� says Dan Watson, professor and chair of the 鈥淭here is no one else with his combination of achievements: he鈥檚 the international leader of research and teaching in optics, and directly inspired as many important inventions with his textbooks as with his research.鈥�
鈥淗e was an incredible scientist,鈥� says Scott Carney, current director of Rochester鈥檚 and a Wolf doctoral student (1999). 鈥淏ut more remarkably, he was an incredible person.聽He demonstrated his devotion to us, his students, simply by being present and spending time with us every day.鈥�
Wolf was 鈥渄eeply committed to equality and justice; the most upset I ever saw him was when he thought a student had been treated unfairly because of race or creed or gender,鈥� says Carney. 鈥淗is friendships were deep and life-long. My favorite picture of him was taken with his dear friend Len Mandel, whom Emil recruited to Rochester, on vacation, sitting at the beach together, notebooks out and contemplating together the deep mysteries of the universe.聽 While I鈥檓 sure the science was important to him, I am also sure it was just as important to be working with his friend.鈥�
In a , colleagues and former students cited his ability to look at accepted knowledge and come up with exceptional questions and new insights. 鈥淔or those of you who have not had the privilege of working with Professor Wolf in a 鈥榚ureka鈥� moment, it is like watching a nuclear reactor about to go critical,鈥� wrote Edward Collett, a former collaborator with Wolf.
鈥淭he other thing that strikes me is that Emil, in spite of the countless accolades he has received over the years, does not take himself too seriously,鈥� added Taco Visser, a former student with Wolf, now a professor of theoretical physics at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Born in 1922, Wolf fled his native Czechoslovakia after Germany occupied the country on the eve of World War II. He earned his PhD in mathematics at Bristol University in England in 1948 and, in addition to working with Max Born at Edinburgh, was a postdoc at Manchester University before joining the Rochester faculty in 1959.
In Principles of Optics, now in its seventh edition, Wolf described the then little-known concept of spatial coherence, central to understanding the soon-to-be-invented laser and was the first to fully explain the concept of Gabor鈥檚 holography.聽 The book remains 鈥渢he international standard graduate-level textbook in optics, and one of the books most likely to be found on the shelf of a professional physicist,鈥� says Watson.
鈥淭he fact that the closely related concepts … appeared so early in textbook form had a formidable impact on science and physical optics engineering,鈥� notes the preface to Tribute to Emil Wolf (2004), a book published by the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).
鈥淭he volume Born and Wolf wrote is the bible of optics,鈥� says Brian Thompson, emeritus provost and former director of the Institute of Optics, who first met and worked with Wolf in 1955 at Manchester University in England.聽 鈥淗is work has had a huge influence on optics, and on me personally. We have been friends ever since the day we met.鈥�
Well into his 80s, Wolf remained an active teacher, researcher, editor, author, and, as Christian Brosseau observed, a 鈥渓iving legend鈥� for Brosseau and other young scientists in the field. 鈥淎 generation of students have learned the basics of optics thanks in no small part to courses based on Principles of Optics,鈥� wrote Brousseau, now a professor at the Universit茅 de Bretagne Occidentale in France, in the SPIE tribute.
In recent years Wolf鈥檚 research included investigations of inverse scattering, especially diffraction tomography involving random media.
鈥淲orking under Emil, I felt less like I was an employee and more like a member of an extended family,鈥� wrote Greg Gbur, a former PhD student in Wolf鈥檚 group, now a professor at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. Gbur and other students fondly recalled dinners at the Wolf resident with Emil and his wife, Marlies.
No matter how heated and passionate the discussions among group members became, 鈥淓mil always emphasized we would always end them as friends,鈥� Gbur adds.
鈥淚t turned out to be the perfect place for me,鈥� wrote John Foley, another former PhD student in Wolf鈥檚 group, 鈥渁 place where physics was serious but fun 鈥� because Emil genuinely cared about this students and always got the best out of us.鈥� Foley is a professor emeritus at Mississippi State University.
Wolf later recalled how a letter inviting him to join the Rochester faculty, from Robert Hopkins, then director of the Institute of Optics, had been misplaced by a secretary. Wolf found it among some misplaced proofs of Principles of Optics 鈥� just in time to meet Hopkins, who was visiting England at the time. 鈥淚 have often wondered what my future would have been had I not found his letter in the cupboard . . . at Manchester University.鈥�
Wolf was the recipient of the Frederic Ives Medal of the Optical Society of America (OSA) (1978), the Michelson Medal of the Franklin Institute (1980), the Max Born Award of the OSA (1987), the Marconi Medal of the Italian National Research Council (1987), the Gold Medal of the Czechoslovak Academy of Science (1991), the Medal of the Union of Czechoslovak Mathematicians and Physicists (1991), the Gold Medal of Palacky University, Olomouc, Czechoslovakia (1991), the Esther Hoffman Beller Award for Outstanding Contributions to Optical Science and Engineering Education of the OSA (2002), and a Faculty Lifetime Achievement Award at the 人妻少妇专区 (2009).
He was an honorary member of the OSA, of which he was the president in 1978. Wolf was able to attend the Optical Alumni Network Reception during OSA FiO 100th Anniversary Celebration at Rochester in September. The Institute of Optics and the Department of Physics and Astronomy announced the newly established Emil Wolf Graduate Fellowship, and unveiled an oil painting of Emil Wolf that will hang in a conference room at the Institute of Optics.
He was also an honorary member of the Optical Societies of India and Australia, the Czech Learned Society and the Romanian Academy of Science and Humanities, and was the recipient of honorary degrees from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands (1989), the University of Edinburgh (1990), Palacky University (1992), the University of Bristol (1997), Laval University, Quebec (1997), the University of Franche Comte, France (1999) and Aalborg University, Denmark (1999).
