Photonics pioneer Harvey Pollicove dies

Pollicove

arvey Pollicove '73, founder and director of the Center for Optics Manufacturing (COM) at the University, died January 25. He was 59. Pollicove was scheduled to be honored earlier this month at the Photonics West conference by Photonics Spectra for his contributions to the advancement of photonics.

"Harvey was one of those people who made a difference," says Duncan Moore, professor of optics and cofounder of COM. "Through his leadership, an 'artisan'-based industry that was struggling in the 1980s was transformed into a thriving high-tech industry. It was simply a remarkable achievement by a remarkable man."

After earning his bachelor's degree from the University, Pollicove spent the majority of his career in optics manufacturing at Eastman Kodak Company, where he led the Kodak manufacturing team that developed a lens-fabrication process that allowed the creation of disk cameras and the development of a similar process that led to better optics in CD players. He held various management positions in optics manufacturing, production engineering, and technical market sales.

In 1990, Pollicove retired from Kodak to join the University and establish the center with Duncan Moore, who was then director of the Institute of Optics. At the center, researchers design methods to produce lenses and other optical components that are traditionally difficult or impossible to create.

Pollicove chaired several national and international professional society conferences on manufacturing and authored numerous papers, including several articles for Photonics Spectra. He served on the American Precision Optics Manufacturers Association Executive Committee and the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization's Technical Applications Program. Pollicove was an honorary member of both the Rochester Section of the Optical Society of America and the Hong Kong Photographic and Optics Manufacturers Association. He was active in U.S. and international optics standards and chaired both the Optics and Electro-optics Standards Council and American Society of Mechanical Engineers optical standards committees.

Pollicove is survived by his wife, Catherine; daughters, Carolyn Russell and Sarah Pollicove; sisters, Elaine Kelberman, Betty Bekowsky, and Phyllis Raimone; brother, Allan, and many nieces and nephews.

Services were held January 31 in the Interfaith Chapel. Contributions in his memory may be directed to the Harvey M. Pollicove Memorial Fund, c/o the Rochester Area Community Foundation, 500 East Ave., Rochester, NY, 14607, or to St. John's Home Foundation, 150 Highland Ave., Rochester, NY, 14620.

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