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Celebrate the 50th anniversary
of the laser by taking part in
LaserFest 2010!
For details visit: LaserFest.org
Michael S. Feld, an
OSA Fellow and
professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology,
died on April
10, 2010, in
Jamaica Plain,
Mass., U.S.A.,
after an eight-year struggle
with multiple
myeloma. Feld
directed the
MIT George
R. Harrison
Spectroscopy
Laboratory since
1976. He made
fundamental
contributions to laser science, and
he pioneered devices for early cancer
detection.
Much of Feld’s research was
conducted at the MIT Laser Research
Facility, a center that he founded in
1979. His research interests ranged from
fundamental physics to spectroscopy
to biomedicine and biomedical
engineering. In 1973, Feld made
the first experimental observation of
superradiance, the collective spontaneous emission of an assembly of
excited atoms.
In 1987, he began studying the
radiation of a single, isolated atom in
an optical resonator. That work led to
the demonstration of enhanced and
suppressed spontaneous emission and
radiative level shifts in an open optical
resonator and the development of the
single atom laser in 1994.
Feld’s more recent research was in
laser biomedicine. He directed the Laser
Biomedical Research Center at MIT,
where he worked on using fluorescence
and Raman spectroscopy to diagnose
and image diseases via endoscopy and
optical tomography.
Feld first came to MIT in 1958 as
an undergraduate. He went on to do
[
his Ph.D. there
under the supervision of Ali
Javan. In 1968,
he became a faculty member. He
was named professor of physics
in 1979 and
director of the
Laser Biomedical
Research Center
in 1985. In 1994,
he co-founded
Newton Labs in
Woburn, Mass.,
and began working on medical
devices that use
applied physics
to solve biomedical problems.
His son Jonathan is an optical engineer
at the company.
Feld was elected an OSA Fellow
in 1976, and he was also a Fellow of
the Society of Sigma Xi (1976), the
American Physical Society (1978), the
American Society for Laser Surgery and
Medicine (1978), and the American
Association for the Advancement of
Science (1989). He received numerous
other awards and honors, including the
Thompson Award (1991), the Vinci of
Excellence (France, 1995), the Lamb
Medal of the Physics of Quantum
Electronics Conference, and the OSA
William F. Meggers Award (2008).
Feld was active in the MIT community. He was particularly proud
of his work to develop a welcoming
environment for minority students,
staff and faculty. One of the students
he mentored was U.S. astronaut Ron
McNair, who received his Ph.D. under
Feld’s supervision and who coached
Feld in karate. Feld earned a brown belt
and conducted research in the physics
of karate. He also enjoyed singing and
started a music group called the Spec-tratones, which performed at Spectroscopy Lab events. He is survived by his
wife, Alison Hearn, and three children.
]Michael S. Feld 1940-2010
66 | OPN Optics & Photonics News
www.osa-opn.org
