The Trailblazer of Holography – Juris Upatnieks
Andris Ozols
This paper is devoted to Juris Upatnieks, the Latvian scientist who has worked in United States of America and who is one of the founders of holography. Juris Upatnieks was born in Riga, Latvia on May 7, 1936. In 1944 together with his parents he fled to Germany to avoid the Soviet occupation. In 1951 he emigrated to the United States. There he received his higher education and worked at the University of Michigan during most of his life. Together with Emmeth Leith (1927–2005), Juris Upatnieks has developed the off-axis technique for the recording of transmission holograms enabling for the first time high quality images of 3D objects. This invention made on the basis of the communication theory was a major breakthrough in holography, stimulating its fast development after a long standstill since the invention of holography by Dennis Gabor in 1948.
The principles and applications of holography as well as the contributions made by Juris Upatnieks are briefly reviewed. It is shown that the method of holography has enabled the development of variety of different branches in science, engineering and art. Moreover, it has changed the very concept of universe. The holographic principle proposed by Gerardus ‘tHooft and improved and promoted by Leonard Susskind has matured into one of the cornerstones of modern theoretical physics.
For the invention of off-axis holography Emmeth Leith and Juris Upatnieks were recommended for the Nobel Prize in physics. Until now Juris Upatnieks has been the only Latvian scientist who has had a realistic chance to receive it.