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HOUGHTON MI -- Michael Roggemann, who once called the atmosphere "one
big, thick, random lens," has been chosen to receive Michigan Tech's 2002
Research Award.
"Mike sets the standard for excellence in research," said Tim Schulz,
chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, who nominated
Roggemann for the award. "His selection is consistent with Michigan Tech's
high standard of research achievement."
Roggemann, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, is an
expert in imaging through turbulence. Recently his research has been focussed
on making lasers fly straight and true.
It's a skill that's in high demand. Since coming to Michigan Tech in
1997, Roggemann has been a principal investigator on approximately $3.8
million in externally funded projects, most of them supported by the U.S.
Air Force and its subsidiary agencies.
Lasers are used by the military for targeting and are being investigated
as possible high-energy weapons. What makes a laser a laser is the high
degree of coherence between the waves of light it emits.
"You can think of a laser beam as being a lot of flat plates, stacked
up together and shooting through the air" Roggemann said. This is the
wave front, and if it reaches its target in formation, it can have quite
an impact. But if something happens during the trip to break it apart,
it might do no more damage than a beam of sunshine.
The atmosphere is tailor-made for diffusing light in this way, so compensating
for this effect has become Roggemann's specialty.
Using massive amounts of information, most of it statistical, he and
his fellow researchers use computers to estimate how the atmosphere will
disrupt a laser beam in any given situation. Then the computers use liquid
crystal lenses and deformable mirrors to do exactly the reverse.
"We estimate what the atmosphere will do to the beam, and then we do
the opposite of that, so that when the beam reaches the target, it's back
in phase."
It's like that old junior high experiment, he said, in which waves sent
out from opposite sides of a tank of water cancel each other out, and
the surface stays calm.
"That's exactly what we do, except with optical waves," he said.
Roggemann has an unparalleled record for research in his department,
Schulz said.
"In the history of electrical and computer engineering at Michigan Tech,
no one has been as proficient as Mike, both in terms of publications and
in garnering external support for research.
"He's very well known in the community of imaging through turbulence,
and he has set a new standard for the department. That's very important
when you are trying to move to the next level."
Roggemann's contributions go beyond his research.
"He picks up the ball on all aspects of what it means to be a professor,"
Schulz said. "He's a very, very helpful person. "He gets us headline recognition,
and he also does all the little things that make him a joy to have in
a department. I'm sure every chair on campus would love to have a person
like Mike on board."
Roggemann is coauthor of the book "Imaging through Turbulence" and has
authored or coauthored more than 60 journal articles and over 70 conference
papers.
Among his current research projects, he is co-principal investigator
with Schulz at Michigan Tech on the Air Force's Multi-University Research
Initiative, to investigate the use of lasers as directed energy weapons.
Other universities involved in the project are Georgia Tech, the Air
Force Institute of Technology and the University of California at Los
Angeles.
Michigan Tech's share of the $7.5 million initiative is $1.8 million
over five years.
Before coming to Michigan Tech, Roggemann was an associate professor
of engineering physics at the AFIT. He also served as the electro-optics
program manager at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, in Ohio, and an imaging
researcher at Kirtland Air Force Base, in New Mexico. He earned a PhD
in Electro-Optics from AFIT.
Roggemann is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America and SPIE--The
International Society for Optical Engineering and has served two terms
as associate editor for the "Journal of the Optical Society of America."
The Research Award includes a $2,500 cash prize and will be presented
at President's Convocation on Sept. 18.
5/22/02
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