Polarized Light and Optical Systems

Russell Chipman, PhD, is professor of optical sciences at the University of Arizona and a visiting professor at the Center for Optics Research and Education (CORE), Utsunomiya University, Japan. He teaches courses in polarized light, polarimetry, and polarization optical design at both universities. Prof. Chipman received his BS in physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and his MS and PhD in optical sciences from the University of Arizona. He is a fellow of The Optical Society (OSA) and The International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE). He received SPIE's 2007 G.G. Stokes Award for research in Polarimetry and OSA's Joseph Fraunhofer Award/Robert Burley Award for Optical Engineering in 2015. He is a co-investigator on NASA/JPL's Multi-Angle Imager for Aerosols, a polarimeter scheduled for launch into earth orbit around 2021 for monitoring aerosols and pollution in metropolitan areas. He is also developing UV and IR polarimeter breadboards and analysis methods for other NASA exoplanet and remote sensing missions. He has recently focused on developing the Polaris-M polarization ray tracing code, which analyzes optical systems with anisotropic materials, electro-optic modulators, diffractive optical elements, polarized scattered light, and many other effects. His hobbies include hiking, Japanese language, rabbits, and music.