Q&AReflections on a ‘Jewel’The editor of a new book of essays celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Institute of Optics discusses one of the University’s landmark programs. Interview by Scott Hauser
Over the past year or so, Carlos Stroud has spent a lot of time rummaging around in the attic of Bausch & Lomb Hall, the building where the Institute of Optics had its first home on the River Campus. During his “field research,” the professor of optics and director of the Center for Quantum Information has found a prototype for a night-vision telescope, a signaling beacon that reflects ultraviolet light, and several other examples of innovative technology developed by faculty and researchers from the Institute. But he’s also discovered a new appreciation for the place where he has spent 35 years of his academic life. That appreciation is evident in the new book, A Jewel in the Crown, a collection of essays edited by Stroud and published by the Meliora Press imprint of the University of Rochester Press. The book, released last fall to coincide with Meliora Weekend, the groundbreaking for the new biomedical engineering and optics building, and the Institute’s hosting of the 88th annual conference of the Optical Society of America, commemorates the 75th anniversary of the Institute’s founding in 1929. Relatively speaking, the Institute has always been a small program.
Why has it been so influential? It’s kind of amazing what has been done with so few faculty members,
but part of the reason for the Institute’s influence is its uniqueness.
Until the mid-1960s, it was the only program in optics in the United States.
That’s a unique obligation as well as an unusual charge for a department within the University. After all, Rochester wasn’t a national university in 1929. Why were Kodak and Bausch & Lomb so interested in a University
program?
Who Was ‘Spud’?As Stroud researched the history of the Institute of Optics, he was surprised to discover that in 1945, an enterprising author, known only as “Spud,” had written a spoof of a spy thriller centered in the Institute’s labs on the fourth floor of Bausch & Lomb Hall. Telling the story of a Nazi spy ring, a murder, and stolen documents, the typed manuscript is titled Amontillado’s Arcanum. [more] Would you describe the Institute as a prototype for what we would now
consider an industry-university partnership? How important are those ties? How does the new Center for Institute Ventures fit into that history? We were particularly having problems in the late 1990s. New Ph.D.s were getting salaries as high as their professors to work in industry. Faculty realized that their ideas were worth millions, and so some left to start their own companies. With the Center for Institute Ventures, we’re trying to find ways that faculty won’t have to leave their positions permanently in order to start companies. There are possibilities for leaves or for doing some of their work here, and there’s the possibility of contact with venture capital through the department. The idea is to help faculty develop new ideas and new companies without leaving the University. Why does the book give special emphasis to the influence of the late
Rudolf and Hilda Kingslake? Many of the attitudes that they brought to the Institute—really caring about the students and teaching while at the same time being very interested in industrial research—set a tone that has carried throughout our history. Their character, if that’s what you would call it, is definitely imprinted on the place. Did anything surprise you in the course of your research for the book? The other thing was the extent of the Institute’s contributions during the Second World War. I hadn’t appreciated that until I really got into this. What does the future hold for the Institute? I don’t think I have a very good crystal ball, but I think the idea of mixing basic research and applied research in one place is very powerful. Optics is an enabling technology. It tends to be used in all sorts of fields. Medical optics is hot right now because medical research is hot right now. Quantum computing and quantum communications also are very hot right now. Optics is at the center of a lot of rapidly developing technologies, and it’s essential for all kinds of development. It’s hard not to be optimistic. Everyone seems to agree that combining government, industry, and University research is needed to transition from the old smokestack industries to modern ones. That combination has been at the center of the Institute from the beginning, so it’s nice that the rest of the world is catching up with our idea. For more information about the book, visit the Institute of Optics' Web site. Who Was ‘Spud’?
Stroud says he has theories about who the author was, but his main suspects died within the past several years. He doubts a faculty member would have had the time during the war to write a novel, so he thinks the most likely person would have been an undergraduate with ties to both the Institute and to the psychology department because of the manuscript’s references to vision research. “We still don’t know who wrote it,” Stroud says. “I’ve tried rather hard to find out who the author was, and I haven’t succeeded. It’s almost as though there were a conspiracy to keep it a secret.” The thriller is described in one of the 75 chapters of A Jewel in the Crown. The book also includes examples of pranks, social events, and the words of a song—set to the music of Gilbert and Sullivan —written for Institute gatherings. “I think the experience of being here comes to life in the fun that people had,” Stroud says. “You couldn’t really describe what the Institute was like without telling that part of the story. |
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