Joseph Horner
SPIE Fellow Joseph L. Horner, 73, died 7 March. A recipient of 28 patents and author of 128 scientific papers, Horner retired from the Air Force Research Laboratory in 1999 as chief of the Optical Signal Processing Branch.
Willis Lamb
Nobel laureate Willis E. Lamb Jr., 94, University of Arizona Regents' Professor Emeritus of physics and optical sciences, died 15 May. He received the 1955 Nobel Prize in physics for his experimental work on the fine structure of the hydrogen atom and for the discovery of the phenomenon known as the Lamb Shift.
André Maréchal
André Maréchal, 90, the 1989 SPIE Gold Medal winner who served as director general of the French Institut d'Optique from 1967 to 1983, died 14 October, 2007. Maréchal was a pioneer of Fourier Optics.
Steve Mecherle
G. Stephen (Steve) Mecherle, 52, an expert in laser communications and founder of Laser Diode Systems Corp., died 29 February. A specialist in free-space optical wireless technology for TRW, Hughes Aircraft, NASA, and the Jet Propulsion Lab, Mecherle taught at UCLA and was responsible for obtaining several patents in this area. He chaired the SPIE conference on free-space laser communications at SPIE Photonics West for 15 years and was a co-founder of fSONA of Canada.
Warren Smith
Warren J. Smith, 85, a former president of both SPIE and OSA.
