Yuri Denisyuk: An appreciation

well I apologize to show my face again so quickly this has been an extraordinary year we've lost both in that leaf and you Dennis you can 3 years before that of course Steven Benton this year was born the same year

1927 in Sochi Russia on the Black Sea he grew up in Leningrad during the 2nd World War and he had wanted to do pure research as a boy but after the war he completed a degree

in physical engineering at the Leningrad Institute of Fine Mechanics and Optics he then went to work immediately at the level of state optical Institute and the battle of the century of the Soviet Union research in optics it range from pure theoretical research to applied development projects for the military this photo that he send me from the age of 39 was when he had just begun to receive recognition for his work in holography it came he said from a special notice board where good workers were exposed basic superior

was a man named Alexander who didn't hold a scientific degree but he wasn't program important person for his career under all condemned as you worked on fairly mundane optical design work the Soviet Navy but Elton made it possible for him to pursue a higher degree

then as it began researcher candidate degree in 1958 his original aim was to investigate general imaging and to devise a new kind of display device that could more faithfully reproduce all the properties of an image he started looking at the work of Gavrilets the turn of the century French Nobel Prize physicist that's gradually became particularly interested in ways that generalized interference techniques that have been used for color photography but but also worked in 3 D imaging and not too impressed and as you look at this early stage this work was very important for his early conceptions because it suggested an optical geometry that he stuck with for the next few years the but despite

working perhaps the largest optical research center in the world that is it was rather isolated for this research is nominated thesis advisor you generate you had died before he began his work so he hadn't even had the benefit of advice about what project to choose His work supervisor Elkan didn't have a scientific degree he wasn't really a supervised so in effect he did is advanced degree without a supervisor without any direct supervision told is only system is only daily contact with with with a woman named very run gone and who was on train she washer glassware she didn't really exist beyond that he used a small but adequate resources of the of the Institute and didn't demand anything further by

1959 then is you can clear idea what we hope to do this encounter difficulties this conception was imaging with coherent light this light source of mercury lamp was very dense and the band emulsions were far too insensitive to record using but fortunately the Vavilov Institute had skilled researchers emulsions emulsion chemistry and with Rebecca pro task he was able to obtain much more sensitive high-resolution photographic emulsions and these were the key to obtaining results the 1960 he was able to obtain quite good experimental results in this set is a generalized that system that you know that man photography you know there's some key elements rather than sunlight he used a monochromatic light rather than using light focused on the emulsion from image use colony it like instead of a flat Mercury mirror use reflective objects such as convex mirrors were metal group the result was what he called a wave photographs and he described it as a kind of physical reproduction of the optical for of reflective objects so you can imagine the object itself effect in effect embedded within the and optical embedding so very particular concept very unlike what leaf did very

unlike would get bored what was the result not much no 1 paid attention then 6 lack of a support network meant work was largely ignored is chose supervisory died before selecting a problem for him and he found it difficult his 1st paper published partly because 1 Akademischer the instituted demanded letters of support from others finally another at at admission Vladimir Linnik so supported publication which in fact was necessary to get his degree the reception in the West was

if anything worse he was completely unknown in the West as I mentioned earlier the the new tactics to publicize their work as lensless photography scientists at the same time some parallels with what Dennis CA done only very vaguely very few people made the connection excretions looked and behaved very unlike leaseholder graph it wasn't until 3 years later big 1965 that 3 or 4 separate American groups almost almost simultaneously rediscovered what as you can done so by experimental results they found they could obtain similar results were obtained as you can achieve but then as you got very little credit until the 19 seventies it's the standard term in the West was not Dennis recall pyelography but that man Bragg reflection of all the holograms desert

himself apparently happened much didn't see much potential for this technique he imagined it must be limited to very shallow objects and he didn't really conceive that very deep reconstruction was possible even once the laser was available so all of this early research was without of these he took up a post in 1962 is director of a lot of the Battle of an assumed role very similar to him at least in Michigan leading a group of researchers doing imaging research principally on imaging radars that didn't involve holography the group didn't get wages until 1965 the

basic status rose only gradually he was rehabilitated by the explosion of holography in the West so once the the new patterns became famous gradually his fame grew as well in 1969 finally this status was recognized in the Soviet Union and partly because of 2 influential people here Kapitza famous physicist would worked in the West was able to support him publicly and and below the counter and other workers as well particularly to start sliding and Mrs. laughter childish was able to support him from 1969 so by the

19 seventies was becoming famous he wrote to me my struggles with conservative colleagues in my subsequent trial had a bad influence on my investigations in the field of holography during these long years I was bombarded by journalists and numerous beginners who wish to become involved with holography these were not my best years but

awards followed faster these days you found that his nation recognises excellence and he was a succession of words from the 19 seventies onwards he

was able to travel he traveled to non-Soviet countries as early as 1970 but he became known as the figure in the west in English-speaking Western world only the 19 eighties I he

continued to have a very fertile research career likely and came up with a series of very progressive novel ideas in modern optics

the book leave and then as you are interesting personalities because they became mythological figures brain mythologized desert you obtain the status as a kind of founding father of the field and became a mythical character in West partly because he was so rarely seen no 1 in the West really so much of that is until the late 19 eighties because of the UK in 1987 to receive the prize he went to America the 1st half of 1989 and this was a quarter century after he had done in his seminal research so like quarter century he was known almost by reputation rather than as a living breathing human beings that

reputation is further buttressed by his dedication to the subject to his working life regular conference contributions from the 19 eighties and of course continuing productivity and then just 1

final point it's often been

remarked that least and URI has shared many similarities for example they have rather similar demeanours self-effacing generous dry sense of humor and their careers and reputations involved in a surprisingly similar ways both worked on radar imaging both developed variants of holography both passed classified security to relative fame but it's even more curious coincidence of their career parallels even extended the lifespan the to survive to within a week of the same age 78 years 10 months and 18 and 11 days respectively

FIL