International Conference on Optics and Lasers Applications

ICOLA2013

LOC Members Biographies

Prof. R. S. Sirohi had been deeply engaged in academic administration and research since 2000 as Director IIT Delhi (Dec. 2000- April 2005), Vice-Chancellor Barkatullah University, Bhopal (April 2005-Sept. 2007), Vice-Chancellor of Shobhit University, Meerut (Oct. 2007-March 2008), Vice-Chancellor of Amity University Rajasthan, Jaipur (March 2008-Oct.2009) and Vice-Chancellor of Invertis University, Bareilly (Jan 31 to July 31, 2011). Since September 2011, he is Distinguished Scholar at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Terre Haute, IN (USA). Prof. Sirohi did his Masters in Physics in 1964 from Agra University and Post M.Sc. in Applied Optics and Ph. D. in Physics from Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi in 1965 and 1970 respectively. Prof. Sirohi was Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering Department at Indian Institute of Technology Madras during 1971-1979. He became Professor in the Physics department of the same Institute in 1979. Prof. Sirohi worked as Humboldt Fellow at Physikalische – Technische Bundesanstalt Braunschweig, Germany. He was a Senior Research Associate at Case Western Reserve University Cleveland, USA.

Prof. Sirohi was an Associate Professor at Rose Hulman Institute of Technology, Terre Haute, USA. He was ICTP (International Center for Theoretical Physics, Trieste Italy) Consultant to Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Malaya, Malaysia and ICTP Visiting Scientist to the University of Namibia. He was Visiting Professor at the National University of Singapore. Prof. Sirohi is Fellow of several important academies in India and abroad including Indian National Academy of Engineering; National Academy of Sciences, Optical Society of America; Optical Society of India; SPIE (The International Society for Optical Engineering) and honorary fellow of ISTE and Metrology Society of India. He is member of several other scientific societies, and founding member of India Laser Association. Prof. Sirohi was also the Chair for SPIE-INDIA Chapter, which he established with co-operation from SPIE in 1995 at IIT Madras. He was invited as JSPS Fellow and JITA Fellow to Japan. He was a member of the Education Committee of SPIE.

Prof. Sirohi has received the following awards from various organizations such as Humboldt Research Award (1995) by Alexander von Humboldt Foundation,
Germany, Galileo Galilei Award of International Commission for Optics (1995), Amita De Memorial Award of the Optical Society of India (1998), 13th Khwarizmi International Award, IROST (Iranian Research Organisation for Science and Technology (2000), Albert Einstein Silver Medal, UNESCO (2000), Dr. YT Thathachari Prestigious Award for Science by Thathachari Foundation, Mysore (2001), Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru Award in Engineering & Technology for 2000, (awarded in 2002) by MP Council of Science and Technology, NRDC Technology Invention Award on May 11, 2003, Sir CV Raman Award: Physical Sciences for 2002 by UGC, Padma Shri, a national Civilian Award (2004), Sir CV Raman Birth Centenary Award (2005) by Indian Science Congress Association, Kolkata, Holo-Knight, inducted into Order of Holo-Knights during the International Conference-Fringe 05-held at Stuttgart, Germany on September 12, 2005, Centenarian Seva Ratna Award (2004) by The Centenarian Trust, Chennai, was awarded in February, 2006, Instrument Society of India Award 2007 on October 24, 2007, Gabor Award 2009 by SPIE (The International Society for Optical Engineering) USA on 7th April 2009, UGC National Hari OM Ashram Trust Award - Homi J. Bhabha Award for Applied Sciences (2005), awarded in August 2009 by UGC

Prof. Sirohi is a member on several Boards and Committees in India. He was the President of the Optical Society of India during 1994-1996. He was on the International Advisory Board of the Journal of Modern Optics, UK and on the editorial Board of the Journal of Optics (India). He was Guest Editor to the Journals "Optics and Lasers in Engineering" and "Optical Engineering". Currently he is Associate Editor of the International Journal “Optical Engineering”, USA, regional editor of the Journal of Holography and Speckle, USA and is on the editorial Board of Optik (Germany). Prof. Sirohi has published 241 papers in national and international journals, 65 papers in Proceedings of the conferences/symposia and has authored/coauthored/ edited thirteen books including five milestones for SPIE. He has participated in numerous international and national conferences and presented 139 papers. He has delivered 45 invited talks in various national and international conferences/symposia. He was Principal Co-ordinator for 26 projects sponsored by Government Funding Agencies and Industries. He has supervised 25 Ph.D. theses, 7 M.S. theses and numerous B.Tech., M.Sc. and M.Tech. theses. Prof. Sirohi's research areas are Optical Metrology, Optical Instrumentation, Laser Instrumentation, Holography and Speckle Phenomenon.

Professor Andrew Forbes was born in 1969; he studied Physics at the University of Natal and received his PhD in 1998 in lasers/optics while working at the Atomic Energy Corporation on laser-based processing for Uranium Enrichment.  From 1999 until 2005 he worked in a commercial environment as an applied laser physicist, where he helped established a private laser company.  In 2005 Andrew decided to return to more research orientated activities and joined the CSIR National Laser Centre where he started two new research groups and is presently Chief Researcher at the CSIR. 

Prof. Andrew is a member of the Steering Committee and founding member of the Photonics Initiative of South Africa, and sits on several international conference committees, including OSA's Frontiers in Optics and SPIE's Photonics West (Laser Resonators and Beam Control), chairs the SPIE international conference on Laser Beam Shaping, is member of SPIE's Membership Committee, Vice-Chair of the OSA's Digital Holography and Diffractive Optics group, Chair of the 2011 Photonics Symposium at the International Conference on Frontiers in Polymers and Advanced Materials, Chair of the 2013 International Conference on Adaptive Optics for Industry and Medicine, and holds honorary positions at the University of Stellenbosch, the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Kwazulu-Natal.  He is reviewer for all the major optics/lasers journals, for several national and international funding agencies, and is an active member of various outreach organizations, including Convener for Physics at the South African Young Scientist Expo Finals each year.

Prof. Forbes has edited and/or contributed to several books, proceedings and patents, and has published more than 110 papers in refereed journals and international conference proceedings, most of them in the past 5 years, and together with his students has presented approximately 200 orals or posters at conferences. He is also an active populariser of science through numerous popular articles, television shows and radio contributions.

Prof. Forbes' interests include digital holography and its applications at the classical and quantum levels of light. In particular, his research interests include the creation, measurement and control of light carrying orbital angular momentum for applications in quantum information, and particle rotation in optical trapping and tweezing systems, and non-diffracting light carrying orbital angular momentum. He is also interested in customised laser resonators for high brightness lasers.

Professor Akhlesh Lakhtakia received degrees from the Banaras Hindu University (B.Tech. and D.Sc.) and the University of Utah (M.S. and Ph.D.), in electronics engineering and electrical engineering, respectively. He is the Charles Godfrey Binder (Endowed) Professor of Engineering Science and Mech\-anics at the Pennsylvania State University, and presently serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Nanophotonics. His current research interests include nanotechnology, bioreplication, surface multiplasmonics, complex materials, metamaterials, and sculptured thin films. He is a Fellow of SPIE, Optical Society of America, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Institute of Physics (UK).  


Professor Wolfgang Osten received the MSc/Diploma in Physics from the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena in 1979. From 1979 to 1984 he was a member of the Institute of Mechanics in Berlin working in the field of experimental stress analysis and optical metrology. In 1983 he received the PhD degree from the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg for his thesis in the field of holographic interferometry. From 1984 to 1991 he was employed at the Central Institute of Cybernetics and Information Processes ZKI in Berlin making investigations in digital image processing and computer vision. Between 1988 and 1991 he was heading the Institute for Digital Image Processing at the ZKI. In 1991 he joined the Bremen Institute of Applied Beam Technology (BIAS) to establish and to direct the Department Optical 3D-Metrology till 2002. Since September 2002 he has been a full professor at the University of Stuttgart and director of the Institute for Applied Optics. From 2006 till 2010 he was the vice rector for research and technology transfer of the Stuttgart University where he is currently an elected member of the senate. His research work is focused on new concepts for industrial inspection and metrology by combining modern principles of optical metrology, sensor technology and image processing. Special attention is directed to the development of resolution enhanced technologies for the investigation of micro and nano structures.  

Doctor of Philosophy, Aerospace Engineering, 1998 - 2002, University of Maryland at College Park is currently Assistant Professor, Department of Aerospace Engineering & Engineering Mechanics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, USA.  

He is a member of the American Helicopter Society (AHS), SPIE, AIAA and referee for Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures, AIAA Journal, Progress in Aerospace.


Prof. Joris J.J. Dirckx was born in Antwerp , Belgium , in 1960. He graduated in Physics and in Didactics at the University of Antwerp , taught physics and mathematics in high school, and then became assistant at the University of Antwerp . In 1991 he obtained the PhD in Physics, with the dissertation “Automated moiré topography and its use for shape and deformation measurements of the eardrum”. From 1992 to 1993 he worked as scientific advisor for the government, where he assessed and audited major industrial research projects. In 1994 he returned to research and worked at the ENT department of St. Augustinus hospital as clinical audiologist, and performed research on oto-acoustic emissions and cochlear implants. In 1996 he joined the University of Antwerp as post-doc researcher, and was appointed lecturer in physics in 2000. He is now full professor and director of the laboratory of Biomedical Physics. He teaches courses in general physics, physics of optical microscopy, courses in practical holography and biomedical imaging.  

His current research interests focus on the development of opto-electronic metrology systems, and on the mechanics of biological systems. In the field of measurement techniques, he focuses on the development of optical metrology to measure shape, deformation and vibration of small objects, such as the eardrum, the middle ear ossicles, blood vessels and bird skulls. In the field of middle ear research, his interest is mainly in middle ear pressure regulation and its effect on middle ear mechanics, and in high resolution imaging and modelling of the middle ear system. Current projects involve interferometric measurements of ossicle and eardrum movements, stroboscopic digital holographic interferometry, measurements of quasi-static pressure transfer from the eardrum to the cochlea, studies of non-linear acoustic behaviour of the middle ear system, mechanics of bird beak movement, measurement of pulse waves in blood vessels, development of multi-channel laser vibrometry, high resolution optical tomography and moiré interferometry. He is Senior Member of the Optical Society of America, and in 2009 and 2012 he organised the international conference on Optical measurement techniques for Structures and Systems.