Jorge Ojeda-Castañeda: The 2021 SPIE Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award in Photonics

Jorge Ojeda-Castañeda, a professor of applied optics at the University of Guanajuato, is internationally recognized for his key contributions to modern imaging. He has established seminal groundwork for computational imaging — before that term existed — one of the major areas of development in optics and photonics in recent years. His work on the ambiguity function, phase-optics space, extended depth-of-field, self-imaging, and non-diffractive beams have had a tremendous impact across imaging technologies, from microscopy, tomography, and aberration-free imaging systems, to 3D vision.

As an institutional leader, Ojeda-Castañeda has brought forward-looking stabilization and innovation to his organizational roles, developing human resources and other infrastructure in several optics and photonics communities. He is a scientist who believes that teaching and lecturing are not enough to develop a strong science community and has been proactive in promoting and collaborating with conferences and activities across Latin America, Asia, and Europe. He is a gifted, honored, and frequently invited lecturer at such meetings, with a significant number of graduates and post-doctoral students under his tutelage and mentorship, and he is known for his extraordinary teaching skills. As a result of his vision and action, Latin America is one of the fastest-growing communities in the field of optics and photonics. He has been an SPIE Member since 1972, and an SPIE Fellow since 1989, at that time only the second person from the Ibero-American region with that distinction. His contributions to SPIE include serving as an editor of SPIE proceedings and as an organizer and presenter at SPIE conferences.

"It has been my pleasure to know and to learn from Jorge," says Joseph N. Mait, who retired from his role as the chief scientist of the US Army Research Laboratory in 2018. "The breadth, depth, quality, and significance of his work speak to the caliber of his intellect, ingenuity, and perseverance; he is recognized not only for that, but also for his humility, modesty, and openness. He is a teacher and a mentor: while his technical work has influenced science, Jorge has influenced the scientists."

Meet the other 2021 SPIE Society Award winners.

Read more about Jorge Ojeda-Castañeda and the Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award in Photonics.