{"id":251812,"date":"2017-06-26T10:53:42","date_gmt":"2017-06-26T14:53:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=251812"},"modified":"2017-06-26T10:54:13","modified_gmt":"2017-06-26T14:54:13","slug":"scott-carney-director-institute-optics-251812","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/scott-carney-director-institute-optics-251812\/","title":{"rendered":"Scott Carney \u2018absolutely honored\u2019 to direct Institute of Optics"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Scott Carney. (University photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Scott Carney says he will have \u201cthe best job in optics\u201d starting July 1. That\u2019s when he becomes the director of the Institute of Optics<\/a><\/strong> at the University of Rochester.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am absolutely honored to be the new director,\u201d says Scott, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the best faculty in optics. The people at the institute have defined optics for a generation, just as their predecessors defined optics for their generation, just as their<\/em> predecessors did.\u201d<\/p>\n

The institute, founded in 1929, is the oldest school of optics in the nation and has awarded nearly half of all this country\u2019s optics degrees. The faculty conducts cutting edge research in fields such as fiber optics, quantum optics, laser matter interaction, optical coherence tomography, and terahertz waves.<\/p>\n

However, the institute will not rest on its laurels, says outgoing director Xi-Cheng Zhang, who will remain on the faculty as the M. Parker Givens Professor of Optics.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are facing competition from other schools that have colleges or centers of optics that are much larger in research funding, faculty size, and number of students,\u201d Zhang says. \u201cScott is extremely capable. I have great confidence he can lead the institute to new heights. He\u2019s a wonderful hire, who is coming in with the overwhelming support of the faculty here.\u201d<\/p>\n

This will be a homecoming of sorts for Carney, who earned his PhD in physics at Rochester studying with Emil Wolf, the leading expert in coherence and polarization of optical fields. Carney\u2019s doctoral work enabled him to become well acquainted with the institute.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone in Emil\u2019s group, and Joe Eberly\u2019s and Len Mandel\u2019s groups (also in physics) all kind of commingled with groups at the institute. There was really no distinction between optics done in physics and physics done in optics. It was a great community then, and remains so today,\u201d Carney says.<\/p>\n

Wendi Heinzelman, dean of the Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences<\/a><\/strong>, says Carney \u201chas a deep-seated love for the institute. He\u2019s coming in with a fresh perspective, but he knows the culture, the history, the aura of the institute \u2014 and he very much wants to help bring the institute to the next level, building on the outstanding reputation it has.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zhang\u2019s \u201chard work and heavy lifting\u201d as director \u201chas made it easier for me to come in,\u201d Carney says.<\/p>\n

During his 5.5-year term, Zhang oversaw increases in:<\/p>\n