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Home > Events, Seminars & Lectures> Arthur H. Compton Lectures

Challenges in Imaging

Forty-Eighth Series
by Walter Wild
Senior Research Associate
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
obituary, January 1999

Images define our world and can convey enormous amounts of information. From the interior of the human body to the interior structure of planets and stars, to mapping the surfaces of distant planets to the structure and distribution of distant galaxies, images across space and time are being created by scientists in a search for greater understanding of the universe. Imaging goes far beyond what we may commonly think of as pictures on a piece of film made using a simple lens. Scientists have developed very ingenious methods to get better astronomical images through the shimmering and turbulent atmosphere, and of regions that would otherwise appear to be inaccessible and beyond reach of our instruments.

These lectures presented a cross section of image science. They reviewed how optical images are formed, the development of astronomical telescopes, and a revolutionary new technology called adaptive optics whereby telescopes can peer through the Earth's turbulent atmosphere to see objects in the sky with crystal clarity, as well as the function of the living human retina. Medical imaging in particular has developed a number of cunning techniques to probe noninvasively within the body. In astronomy, images are made not only in visual wave lengths that our eye can perceive, but in radio, X-ray and gamma-ray wave lengths. The series explored the imaging techniques and instruments that scientists use to better visualize the inner and outer universe around us.

Dr. Wild received his Ph.D. in Optical Sciences from the University of Arizona in Tucson. We regret to report that Dr. Wild passed away suddenly on January 11, 1999.

Oct. 3.	An Overview of Images and Imaging.
Oct. 10.	Light and Optics.
Oct. 17.	Image Formation.
Oct. 24.	Properties of Images, Processing Images, and Detectors.
Oct. 31.	Telescopes - Optical.
Nov. 7.	Telescopes - High and Low Energy Astronomy.
Nov. 14.	Adaptive Optics -- Seeing Through Turbulence.
Nov. 21.	Inverse Imaging -- Looking Backwards.
Nov. 28.	NO LECTURE the Saturday after Thanksgiving.:
Dec. 5.	Medical Imaging.
Dec. 12.	Perspectives and the Future.