E-mail:
refischer@me.com
Area of Expertise
Optical system design and engineering, technical marketing
Biography
Robert E. Fischer holds a BS and MS in Optics from the University of Rochester.
Mr. Fischer's technical interests are in optical system design and engineering, in particular lens design. He is also interested in optical component and system manufacturing, assembly, and testing. His interests extend from the deep UV through the visible and on to the thermal infrared.
Prior to founding OPTICS 1, Mr. Fischer served as Chief Scientist at Hughes Aircraft Company. There, in addition to his numerous technical accomplishments, Mr. Fischer also chaired the Missile Systems Group Patent Evaluation Committee and the Hughes Corporate Advisory Committee on Optical Systems Production. Prior to Hughes he was with the ITEK Corporation where he was Assistant Manager of the Lens Design Section.
An inventor holding five patents (with others pending), Mr. Fischer is also an author and short course instructor teacher. Mr. Fischer's recent book Optical System Design, published by McGraw-Hill in 2000, is in its second printing.
Mr. Fischer is a Past President of SPIE (1984). He has also served as Editor of SPIE's monthly newspaper OE Reports for 15 years. Additionally, Fischer has authored numerous technical papers covering a wide range of subjects in the field of optics. He has also chaired many SPIE conferences relating to optical design and engineering in the U.S. and Europe including Current Developments in Optical Design and Engineering that has been part of the Annual Meeting for nearly 10 years. Fischer was also Technical Program Chair of the 1980 International Lens Design Conference. Since 1978 Fischer has taught SPIE short courses on optical design and engineering, optical design for the infrared, optics for head mounted displays, and in other related topics. Fischer also has chaired and served on SPIE committees including the Symposia Committee, Membership Committee, Scholarship Committee, Awards Committee, and the Presidents Advisory Committee. He is currently Treasurer of the society.
Robert E. Fischer was awarded the SPIE Gold Medal for the year 2000, the Society's highest technical honor. And in 1986 he won the SPIE Albert M. Pezzuto Award for exceptional leadership and service to the society. He is also a Fellow and Life Member of SPIE and a Fellow of the OSA.
Lecture Title(s)
How to Improve Your Image: It Ain't Magic… Or is it?
This talk will be a fast paced journey through many interesting and revealing aspects of optical system design. We will introduce you to some of the many fascinating and important subtleties of our field, and you will learn why optical design is in many cases both a science and an art. Some of the topics to be discussed:
- Image degradations or aberrations, what they are and how to get rid of them.
- Optical configurations and design tradeoffs
- Optical design for different spectral bands
- High performance for optical systems
- Off the shelf versus custom optics
We will also discuss the Bob Fischer list of Bloopers and Blunders in Optics. Each item has a succinct lesson to be learned.
