Juris Upatnieks


Juris Upatnieks is a Latvian-American physicist and inventor, and pioneer in the field of holography.
Upatnieks fled the Soviet occupation of Latvia with his parents at the close of World War II, seeking asylum in Germany. In 1951 the family emigrated to the United States. He attended high school in Akron, Ohio, and studied electrical engineering at the University of Akron, where he was awarded a bachelor's degree in 1960. Thereafter he studied at the Institute of Science and Technology of the University of Michigan, where he earned a master's degree in electrical engineering in 1965. From 1973 to 1993 he worked at the Environmental Research Institute of Michigan and was an Adjunct Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. There he taught a laboratory course in optics until 1996. From 1993 to 2001 he was a consultant with Applied Optics in Ann Arbor. From 1996 to 2001 he was also a researcher with the faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics at the University of Michigan.
In 1964 he demonstrated, with Emmett Leith, the first three-dimensional holograms in the United States and together with Leith published a series of technical papers from 1962 to 1964.
As of 2009 Upatnieks holds 19 patents. Among them is an holographic gunsight.
In 1975 he received the R. W. Wood Prize of the Optical Society of America and 1976 the Holley Medal of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He was named "Inventor of the Year" in 1976 by the American Association for the Advancement of Invention and Innovation. He is a member of the Optical Society and of International Society for Optical Engineering, as well as a member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, whose Great Medal he received in 1999.

Patents

Upatnieks is holder or co-holder of twenty United States Patents in the fields of holography and coherent radiation.
Patent
number		SubjectYear
granted
Wavefront Reconstruction Using a Coherent Reference Beam1970
Spatial Frequency Reduction in Holography1970
Method of Imaging Transparent Objects with Coherent Light1970
Two-Beam Holography with Reduced Source Coherence Requirements1970
Holographic Vibration Analysis Method and Apparatus1970
Wavefront Reconstruction1971
Method of Imaging Transparent Objects with Coherent Light1972
Technique of Holographic Data Reduction Utilizing an Additional Diffusing Structure During Reconstruction1972
Method of Detecting Changes in Specular Surface1973
Wavefront Reconstruction1974
Holograms1975
Holographic Light Line Sight1977
Hologram Projector1977
Aberration Correction of Magnified Holographic Images1980
Coherent Optical Correlator1981
Method and Apparatus for Recording and Displaying Edge-Illuminated Holograms1987
Compact Head-Up Display1987
Compact Hologram Displays and Methods of Making Compact Hologram1992
Compact Holographic Sight1996
Optical Method and System for Rapidly Measuring Relative Angular Alignment of Flat Parts2004