SPIE G.G. Stokes Award

SPIE member Christian Brosseau, Distinguished Professor of Physics at Universite de Brest (France), is the recipient the 2017 SPIE G.G. Stokes Award.

Brosseau is receiving the award in recognition of his contributions to the theory of polarization of light, particularly for work on statistical optics and polarization applications in optical information processing.

“Dr. Brosseau’s contribution to polarimetry is proved to be indispensable. Among his large amount of contributions to polarization optics, it is enough to mention the formulation and characterization of the statistical properties of polarized light,” said the 2013 Stokes award recipient, José Jorge Gil Pérez of the Universidad de Zaragoza (Spain). “The whole set of contributions of Dr. Brosseau to polarization science is simply outstanding.”

Throughout his career, Brosseau has helped advance the field of polarization optics and image processing. In 1994, he coauthored a paper on the depolarization of multiply scattered waves by spherical diffusers, which contains the first experimental observation of the characteristic lengths of depolarization for a scattering medium and a modelling based on Monte Carlo simulations.

His book Fundamentals of Polarization Optics has become a touchstone work on the history and main concepts in the field. More recently, he coauthored a highly cited article that presented an amalgamation of a large amount of literature on image-processing techniques. He also cowrote a detailed chapter in Progress in Optics that describes innovative polarization-based techniques for increasing image quality and edge detection.

Brosseau’s body of research is influential in the applied optics community, notably for improving diagnostic methods for detection of cancerous tumors and functional imaging. These techniques also have many engineering applications.

Some of Brosseau’s recent projects have scientific as well as technological value for health care, developing novel biological diagnostics and biosensors based on magnetoplasmonic core-shell nanostructures and nanophotonics, as well as suggesting novel concepts and methods for manipulating light and waves at the nanoscale.

He is also known for his outstanding dedication to engaging middle school, high school, and college students in optical science and engineering education. As a physics and optics educator, he believes that his role is not only to transmit knowledge to students but also to guide them in how to think and to reason.

The SPIE G. G. Stokes Award is given annually for exceptional contribution to the field of optical polarization. The award may be presented for a specific achievement, development, or invention of significant importance to optical science and society, or may be given for lifetime achievement.

Brosseau will receive the award at SPIE Optics + Photonics in August.

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