Robert E. Hopkins Leadership Award

The campaign in support of the Robert E. Hopkins Leadership Award Endowment has surpassed its goal!

Thanks to an overwhelming response, the OSA Foundation is pleased to announce the Robert E. Hopkins Leadership Award is fully endowed.  Over $100,000 in donations was received, and makes it possible to permanently recognize Dr Hopkins' many contrubutions to the field and the lasting and positive impact he made through his life-long work with colleagues and the community at large by endowing the OSA Leadership Award in his memory.

 

A special thank you to Charles E. Synborski, Chair, Robert E. Hopkins Fundraising Campaign, and  our leadership donors:

CVI Melles Griot, Semrock, and ATFilms, Units of IDEX Corporation

Institute of Optics, Sydor Optics Inc., Corning Incorporated, Hellma USA Incorporate, IPG Photonics Corp., LaCroix Optical Co., John Bruning, Bill Mimmack, G. Michael Morris, Charles and Judith Munnerlyn, Jannick and Kevin Rolland-Thompson, u2t Photonics AG, James C. Wyant, James Fienup, Edmund Optics, Lambda Research Corporation, Optimax Systems, Inc., Prof. James A. &  Mrs. Gail Eyer, Duncan Moore, Matthew Rimmer, and Brian J. Thompson.

About the Leadership Award
Established in 1997 with the support of Milton Chang and New Focus, the Leadership Award honors those who have strengthened the link between the optics community and the public. Given annually, the award recognizes individuals or groups that have had a significant impact on the global optics and photonics community or an individual or group from the optics and photonics community which has had a significant impact on society as a whole stemming from non-research oriented activities.  

   
Leadership Award Winners
Year Name
2010 Rod C. Alferness
2009 Alan E. Willner
2008 Barry L. Shoop
2007 Arpad A. Bergh
2005 Ravindra A. Athale
2004 Costas Fotakis
2003 Charles M. Vest
2002 Ellen Ochoa
2001 Duncan T. Moore
2000 Denis Pelli
1999 Helmut K. V. Lotsch
1998 Howard Schlossberg

 

About Robert Hopkins

 

 View photos of Dr. Hopkins.

Education

  • B.S. from MIT in 1937 
  • M.S. from the Institute of Optics in 1939
  • Ph.D. from the Institute of Optics in 1945

Career

  • Appointed to the UR faculty (1945)
  • Professor of Optics (1951)
  • Institute of Optics Director (1954 - 1964)
  • Co-founded Tropel, Inc. (1953)
  • Chief Optical Engineer, UR Lab. of Laser Energetics (1975 - 1982)
  • Professor Emeritus (1980's)

Accomplishments

  • US Navy Citation for outstanding wartime service (1948)
  • Optical Society of America (OSA) Fellow
  • OSA President (1973)
  • Sigma Xi Member
  • American Physical Society Fellow
  • SPIE Member (Board of Governors, Gold Medal 1983)
  • Characterized as the “father of optical engineering”