1.

A PROFESSOR AND A VISITING STUDENT IN 2005

On the 16th of August in 2005, a professor and a visiting student were sitting in a classroom at the Harvill building on the University of Arizona campus (Figure 1). The professor began the first session of the semester.

Figure 1.

(Left) The first session of OPTI513 Optical Testing class by professor Wyant on 16 Aug 2005. Daewook, who was a master’s degree student in the astronomy program at Yonsei University (South Korea), was auditing the class as a visiting student. (Right) The professor is explaining the concept of nodal point in order to explain the use of nodal slide to measure optical properties of a lens such as cardinal points and effective focal length.

“Well, say good morning to everyone. Happy to see so many here. I guess that indicates you like classes at 8 am. Well, I like teaching at 8 am. Seven would be better, but eight is, eight is okay…”

“So, we’re going to be talking about optical testing and I guess the official title of the course is optical testing, but I call it optical testing and testing instrumentation. I’m Jim Wyant in case you don’t know. You can sometimes find me in Room 652, and what maybe is more important here is that my email address is given here, and that’s probably the best way to contact me, and the website. My website is given here and all the notes for the course going to be up on the website. In fact, why don’t we go right to the website and see what’s there and then that will lead us into the notes. So that’s my website. Just www.optics.arizona, that is the optical sciences website, and then/JCWyant.”

This was Prof. James (a.k.a. Jim) C. Wyant’s opening remark for the OPTI513 Optical Testing class started at 8 am on 16 Aug 2005. I, Daewook Kim, was sitting in the classroom as a visiting student, who just got permission to audit the course for the semester. The classroom was located at the Harvill building at the University of Arizona campus because the west-wing expansion of the College of Optical Sciences was under construction and the Harvill building had video recording equipment for distance learning classes (Figure 2).

Figure 2.

(Left) The last session of OPTI513 Optical Testing class by Prof. Wyant on 6 Dec 2005. Jim is handing over the class evaluation sheet to a student, apparently looks like Daewook Kim. (Right) Jim’s famous online simulation tool [1], based on Mathematica for calculating the Point Spread Function (PSF) and Modulation Transfer Function (MTF), was already being used during the class in 2005. This online simulator is still being utilized in OPTI513 course every year as of 2021.

It was an excellent course with a lot of advanced theories and exciting concepts, including interferometry and its practical applications. As an astronomy major master’s program student who never learned optics until then, this graduate-level optical metrology course was very challenging but also intriguing. On the last day of the semester, in love with optics, I was about to ask Prof. Wyant for a recommendation letter for my graduate program application to the College of Optical Sciences, which was renamed to the Wyant College of Optical Sciences in April 2019. As Jim was concluding the last lecture session he distributed the course evaluation forms to the class and talked about his upcoming conference trip to India to talk about optical testing.

“So, while you are taking the final, you can think of me… in India, talking about optical testing. So, I will be around all day if you have questions today. With that I will shut the mic off.”

I was running out of time to ask and receive a letter from him before his travels. Right after the class, I asked him if he would write a letter for my application. He kindly said “Yes,” although he was about to depart for a long international trip to the other side of the Earth, India. At the time, Jim and I never knew what the next 15 years would hold.

2.

UNCONDITIONAL PASSING THE BATON IN 2017

Jim’s OPTI513 course covers a comprehensive list of topics regarding precision optical testing. It includes basic optical parameters of lens/mirrors, optical system properties, aberration theory, history of interferometric optical testing technologies, various testing configurations, and all the way to the modern freeform optical metrology solutions beyond interferometry. The course syllabus (Figure 3) was filled with an ever-growing list of various topics. Many hundreds of students including myself have been educated through this course.

Figure 3.

The first two pages (out of 10) OPTI513 Optical Testing and Testing Instrumentation course syllabus by Prof. Wyant in Fall 2013.

I can confidently say that the course was one of the best and beloved courses at the Wyant College of Optical Sciences. It was often recommended to graduate students who were looking for optical engineering career by many of faculty members and colleagues at the College. Surely, Jim was the only one who could cover all the aspects of such a broad-yet-deep list of topics based on both actual experiences and profound insights. I could not think of anyone who could replace him, especially in his role teaching OPTI513.

In 2017, Jim asked me if I could teach the OPTI513 Optical Testing course. There was no way I could cover all the material and content taught by Jim. However, he trusted this young faculty member who audited his lecture 12 years earlier, and handed me all the lecture materials, homework problems, exam questions, and presentation slides. All the course materials were in great shape and up-to-date, including various emerging topics as of 2017. Jim passed the baton to continue the educational mission of the College to me with unconditional trust and support (Figure 4).

Figure 4.

(Left) The first session of the OPTI513 Optical Testing course (in the Meinel building classroom 305) by Prof. Wyant on 21 Aug 2012. (Right) The session 21 of the OPTI513 Optical Testing course by Prof. Kim on 28 Mar 2019.

3.

CONNECTED MINDS AROUND JIM IN 2019

In year 2019, I received an email from Prof. Singh inviting me to the ICOL conference in India.

“Dear Professor Kim, I am happy to inform you that an ‘International Conference on Optics and Electro-Optics’ (ICOL-2019) is scheduled to be held at the Instruments Research and Development Establishment Dehradun (Uttarakhand, India) during the period Oct. 19-22, 2019… It is with great pleasure that I take this opportunity to invite you to deliver an Invited Lecture in ICOL-2019… Your name has been recommended to me by Professor J. Wyant, a Member of the International Advisory Committee of ICOL-2019… Kehar Singh, Formerly Professor and Dean Postgraduate Studies and Research IIT Delhi”

It was the same conference that Prof. Wyant attended in 2005 and had talked about in his last session of the OPTI513 class. A fact I just realized, as I was watching Jim’s 2005 OPTI513 class videos in order to write this manuscript. Life is surprisingly connected with many unrecognized magical events.

The conference led me to a thankful opportunity to build a strong relationship not only with Prof. Singh, but also with Prof. Mahajan who was another invited lecturer at the conference. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, Prof. Mahajan provided an invited lecture about optical wavefront analysis to the OPTI513 class. The course is continually evolving with all the connected beautiful minds centered around Jim. Prof. Wyant enables others by motivating, teaching, raising, and connecting them so they can commit to the education of future generations.

Figure 5.

(Left) Daewook Kim and Prof. Singh, connected through Prof. Wyant’s recommendation, at the ICOL 2019 conference in India. (Right) Prof. Mahajan giving an invited lecture about the optical wavefront analysis [2] to the OPTI513 class in Apr 2021. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the lecture was given digitally using University of Arizona’s distance learning platform.

4.

OPTICAL TESTING COURSE IN 2021 AND BEYOND

Jim always wanted to teach more students and professionals and share his knowledge with broader community members worldwide. A short version of OPTI513 course has been created and offered as the SPIE Short Course SC213, Introduction to Interferometric Optical Testing, at the annual SPIE Optics + Photonics conference in San Diego. Also, another Short Course SC212, Modern Optical Testing, has been presented at the SPIE Photonics West in San Francisco conference every year.

Professor Wyant taught the short courses until 2020. In 2021, he handed them over to me, along with all the course materials just like the OPTI513 course (Figure 6). In addition to the two short courses, Daewook is now discussing a third short course series with SPIE at the SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation conference. Jim’s passion and vision will continue to reach more students and peers in the world through his academic sons and daughters, including myself, in 2021 and beyond.

Figure 6.

The SPIE Short Course SC213, Introduction to Interferometric Optical Testing, registration page for the 2021 SPIE Optics + Photonics conference in San Diego. It also shows the short course textbook authored by Eric Goodman and Jim Wyant [3].

5.

THANK YOU, JIM

There are many ways to describe professor Wyant’s contributions to our optics community. No words can be enough. Sometime, simple words may deliver more.

“Thank you, Jim, from the bottom of our hearts.”

Optics community and your students will remember you, your lectures, and your smile forever.

Figure 7.

Lunch gathering with Daewook Kim, James C. Wyant, Virendra N. Mahajan, and Arvind S. Marathay at the Student Union, University of Arizona, in 2019.