Barrett, Myers Receive Goodman Book Award

SPIE and the Optical Society of America (OSA) jointly awarded the first Joseph W. Goodman Book Writing Award to Harrison H. Barrett and Kyle J. Myers for their book Foundations of Image Science (John Wiley & Sons, 2003).

Given biennially with a $5000 prize, the award recognizes a recent and outstanding book in the field of optics and photonics that has contributed significantly to research, teaching, or the optics and photonics industry.

The Barrett and Myers work explores the basic theories behind imaging systems, including the principles, mathematics, and statistics needed to understand and evaluate these systems. The book provides a strong foundation for graduates and undergraduates and workers in the field of imaging science, from satellites to medicine and beyond.

The joint SPIE-OSA award committee describes the book as "a superb example of scientific and technical writing" and "likely to become the standard text for the next generations of students interested in image science."

To be eligible for the award, books should be published recently, and should be "authored" technical books rather than handbooks, reviews, or compilations. Nominated books must be in print, readily available, and must be available in English.

The endowment for this award is a personal gift from Joseph W. and Hon Mai Goodman. Goodman says he hopes the award will encourage book writing by researchers and educators at all stages of their careers.