Emil Wolf

For the 19th century German sculptor, seeEmil Wolff.

Emil Wolf
Born	(1922-07-30)July 30, 1922 Prague, Czechoslovakia
Died	June 2, 2018(2018-06-02)(aged 95) Rochester, New York,U.S.
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Bristol University
Known for	Holotomography Wolf effect Born and Wolf
Awards	Frederic Ives Medal(1978) Michelson Medal(1980) Max Born Award(1987) Marconi Medal(1987) Esther Hoffman Beller Medal(2002)
Scientific career
Fields	Optics,physics
Institutions	University of Edinburgh University of Manchester University of Rochester
Doctoral advisor	Edward H. Linfoot
Other academic advisors	Max Born
Doctoral students	Girish Agarwal M. Suhail Zubairy
Signature

Emil Wolf(July 30, 1922 – June 2, 2018)was a Czech-born Americanphysicistwho made advancements in physicaloptics,includingdiffraction,coherenceproperties of opticalfields,spectroscopyof partially coherentradiation,and the theory ofdirect scatteringandinverse scattering.He was also the author of numerous other contributions to optics.

Life and career

Wolf was born into a Jewish family inPrague,Czechoslovakia.He was forced to leave his native country when the Germans invaded.After brief periods in Italy and France (where he worked for the Czech government in exile), he moved to the United Kingdom in 1940. He received his B.Sc. in Mathematics and Physics (1945), and Ph.D. in Mathematics fromBristol University,England, in 1948. Between 1951 and 1954 he worked at theUniversity of EdinburghwithMax Born,writing the famous textbookPrinciples of Opticsnow usually known simply asBorn and Wolf.After a period on the Faculty of the University of Manchester, he moved to the United States in 1959 to take a position at theUniversity of Rochester.He became a naturalized U.S. citizen and was the Wilson Professor of Optical Physics at the University of Rochester. He was president of theOptical Society of Americain 1978.Until his death Wolf resided in Cloverwood in Pittsford, New York, with his wife.

Wolf predicted a new mechanism that producesredshiftandblueshift,that is not due to moving sources (Doppler effect), that has subsequently been confirmed experimentally (called theWolf effect). Technically, he found that two non-Lambertiansources that emit beamed energy, can interact in a way that causes a shift in the spectral lines. It is analogous to a pair of tuning forks with similar frequencies (pitches), connected together mechanically with a sounding board; there is a strong coupling that results in the resonant frequencies getting "dragged down" in pitch. The Wolf effect can produce either redshifts or blueshifts, depending on the observer's point of view, but is redshifted when the observer is head-on. A subsequent 1999 article by Sisir Royet al.have suggested that the Wolf effect may explain discordant redshift in certain quasars.

Wolf remained an active teacher, researcher and author well into his 80s. He died on June 2, 2018, aged 95.

Works

Wolf was a very well known book author in the field of optics. Along withMax Born,he co-wrotePrinciples of Opticsone of the standard textbooks of optics commonly known as "Born and Wolf". In addition he co-authored, withLeonard Mandel,Optical Coherence and Quantum Optics.He also authoredIntroduction to the Theory of Coherence and Polarization of LightandSelected Works of Emil Wolf with Commentary(World Scientific Publishing, 2001,ISBN981-281-187-7).Furthermore, he edited theProgress in Opticsseries of books, forElsevier,from its inception in 1962.

Awards, memberships and degrees

Awards

• Frederic Ives Medalof theOptical Society of America(1977)
• Albert A. Michelson Medalof theFranklin Institute(1980)
• Max Born Awardof the Optical Society of America (1987)
• Marconi Medal of the Italian National Research Council (1987)
• Gold Medal of the Czechoslovak Academy of Science (1991)
• Medal of the Union of Czechoslovak Mathematicians and Physicists (1991)
• Gold Medal ofPalacký University of Olomouc,Czechoslovakia (1991)
• Esther Hoffman Beller Medal(2002)
• G. G. Stokes Award ofSPIE(2010)

Memberships

• Honorary member of the Optical Society of America (President in 1978)
• Honorary member of the Optical Societies of India and Australia

Honorary degrees

• University of Groningen,the Netherlands (1989)
• University of Edinburgh(1990)
• Palacký University of Olomouc(1992)
• University of Bristol(1997)
• Université Laval,Quebec (1997)
• University of Franche-Comté,France (1999)
• Aalborg University,Denmark (1999).

See also

• Past presidents of the Optical Society of America
• Progress in Optics

External links

• Emil Wolf.Home Page atUniversity of Rochester.
• Principles of Optics: Electromagnetic Theory of Propagation, Interference and Diffraction of Light (English)Sample chapters.
• Emil Wolfat theMathematics Genealogy Project
• Articles Published by early OSA PresidentsJournal of the Optical Society of America
• Gregory J. Gbur (2018)RIP Emil Wolf, 1922-2018)