Jacques E. Ludman, an OSA Fellow known for his important contributions to holography, died on June 1,
2009, in Hollis, N.H., U.S.A. He
was 74.
Ludman received a B.S. from Middlebury College, Vt., in 1956 and a Ph.D.
from Northeastern University in 1973.
He was a research scientist at the U.S.
Air Force, Rome Air Development
Center, Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass.,
from 1957 until 1977, and chief of the
Optical Signal Processing Section there
from 1978 to 1987. He was a visiting
scientist at Centre National d’Etudie de
Telecommunication, Lanion, France,
from 1977 to 1978, and a visiting scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology from 1987 to 1988.
In 1988, Ludman became president
of Northeast Photosciences, Inc., where
his activities were directed to holography
for solar energy production and solar
energy conservation. Some examples of
his achievements include:
Jacques E. Ludman
1928-2009 [ ]
to help fellow scientists. For a number of
years, he sponsored small summer workshops at his cabin at Lake Armington,
N.H., for scientists and their families.
“Jacques had the ability to make
hard problems easy by understanding
them deeply and then translating them
into easy-to-understand terms,” said
Ludman’s long-time colleague H. John
Caulfield. “He embodied Einstein’s rule:
‘Everything should be made as simple as
possible, but no simpler.’ The number of
important first-generation holographers
who have died recently reads like an
honor roll for the field. Sadly, one more
name has been added. We miss you
greatly, Jacques.”
Ludman is survived by his wife,
Valentina, two children and three
grandchildren.
c;A holographic window that could
bring light deep into a room, saving
energy in obvious and non-obvious
ways.
c;A holographic solar concentrator that
increases energy-conversion efficiency.
c;A holographic method to increase
the productivity of algae farms
dramatically.
c;Holographic greenhouses with significant advantages over conventional
greenhouses.
He was also very proud of a nonlethal
light weapon he built. It was engineered
so that it could not miss the eyes of the
person at which it is aimed. It could
also adjust automatically to control the
light dose delivered.
Ludman was the author of numerous
articles and publi-
cations, including
Adaptive Optics
and Holography for
the New Millen-
nium (with H.
John Caulfield
and Juanita Ric-
cobono). He was
elected as an OSA
Fellow in 1982,
and he was also a
member of SPIE
and Sigma Xi.
Ludman is
remembered as a
caring individual
who was committed to sharing his
knowledge and
experience with
young scientists.
He gave generously of his time
If you would like to make a memorial donation to the
OSA Foundation in honor of Jacques Ludman, please
visit www.osa-foundation.org/give.
