Chandra Vikram Award in Optical Metrology

SPIE Fellow Guillermo Kaufmann, head of the Optical Metrology Lab at Instituto de Física Rosario (Argentina) is the 2015 recipient of the Chandra S. Vikram Award. The award recognizes Kaufmann’s contributions to speckle metrology; its applications in material science, experimental mechanics, and nondestructive testing; and his development of novel fringe-analysis methods.

The Chandra S. Vikram Award is given annually for achievements, developments, or inventions of significant importance to optical metrology.

In addition to speckle metrology, Kaufmann has made outstanding contributions in holographic interferometry, fringe analysis, phase-shifting interferometry, phase unwrapping, speckle noise reduction, and digital image processing. He has also developed optical-metrology methods in experimental mechanics and material science, and coherent-optics techniques for strain analysis and nondestructive testing.

Kaufmann’s novel speckle interferometry techniques and their application in experimental mechanics, materials technology, and nondestructive testing are well-known to the scientific community, notes SPIE Fellow and 2012 SPIE Gold Medal recipient Daniel Malacara Hernández, professor emeritus at Centro de Investigaciones en Optica (CIO) in Mexico.

“His most important contributions in the field of speckle metrology began in 1978-79 as a research fellow of the National Physical Laboratory (UK) under the supervision of J.M. Burch and A.E. Ennos, who created these techniques,” says Malacara Hernández.

During this time, Kaufmann developed the first automatic readout system to analyze the Young’s fringes produced in speckle photography, a simple technique used for deformation and strain measurement in solid mechanics and velocity measurement in fluid mechanics.

Kaufmann has served on the SPIE Board of Directors and several SPIE committees, including the Symposia, Education, and Fellows committees. He was the honorary chair and proceedings co-editor for the Speckle 2010 conference in Brazil and has authored several articles in the SPIE journal Optical Engineering.

SPIE presents several annual awards that recognize individual and team technical accomplishments in optics and photonics and service to the Society.

Nominations for the 2016 awards may be submitted to SPIE through 1 July 2015 for the Britton Chance Biomedical Optics Award and the Biophotonics Technology Innovator Award and by 1 October 2015 for all other SPIE awards.

Nominations remain active for three years from the submission date, except for the SPIE Early Career Achievement Award and the Joseph W. Goodman Book Writing Award.

Nominations must be accompanied by:

• Nomination form
• Citation stating the accomplishments of nominee
• Description of the significant aspects of nominee’s career
• Candidate’s curriculum vitae listing educational background, positions held, publications, awards, honors, activities, and offices held within SPIE
• At least two letters of reference, not from the nominator

Learn more about SPIE awards.

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