Seibert Quimby Duntley was an American physicist. He was born in Bushnell, Illinois on October 2, 1911.

Education

He received an SB in physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1933. Duntley received an MS degree from California Institute of Technology in 1935 and an Sc.D. in physics from MIT in 1939.

Career

While at MIT, Duntley met and worked with Karl Taylor Compton, Harold Eugene Edgerton, and many other prominent physicists. Duntley's primary interest was in applied physics particularly the optics of turbid media. He started the Visibility Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1939/40. It was the brainchild of Duntley and MIT physics chair Dr. Arthur C. Hardy. It was focused on applying optics to such problems as camouflage, misdirection of aerial bombardment, target location, visibility of submerged objects at sea. In 1952,

Roger Revelle Roger Randall Dougan Revelle (March 7, 1909 – July 15, 1991) was a scientist and scholar who was instrumental in the formative years of the University of California, San Diego and was among the early scientists to study anthropogenic global ...

and Quimby Duntley agreed that the laboratory would become part of the

Scripps Institution of Oceanography The Scripps Institution of Oceanography (sometimes referred to as SIO, Scripps Oceanography, or Scripps) in San Diego, California, US founded in 1903, is one of the oldest and largest centers for oceanography, ocean and Earth science research ...

in San Diego, and the U.S. Navy Bureau of Ships agreed to pay for the move. The work of the laboratory centered on the transmission of visible light through the atmosphere and water and the related problems of image formation and recognition. The nature of much of the research required measurements of the optical properties of the ocean or atmosphere for which no instruments existed. As a result of these requirements, many unique and very specialized instruments were developed by the laboratory, many of which were based on concepts or optical designs devised by Duntley. He earned the academic rank of professor in 1966 and taught at

and at the Department of Applied Physics and Information Science (APIS) at UCSD until his retirement.

Institutional affiliations and awards

Duntley was an active member of many professional associations, particularly the Optical Society of America and Sigma Xi. He was president of the Optical Society of America in 1965. He was chairman of the Representatives of the Optical Society on the U.S. National Committee of the International Commission on Illumination. During the 1960s he was a member of the Armed Forces-National Research Council Committee on Vision. He was a participant in the 1971 JASON Laser Summer Study. He chaired the

David Richardson Medal The David Richardson Medal is awarded by the Optical Society (formerly the Optical Society of America) to recognize contributions to optical engineering, primarily in the commercial and industrial sector. The award was first made in 1966 to its nam ...

Committee of the Optical Society of America from 1972 to 1975. He received many awards, including the Army-Navy Certificate of Appreciation and, in 1961, the

Frederic Ives Frederic Eugene Ives (February 17, 1856 – May 27, 1937) was a U.S. inventor who was born in Litchfield, Connecticut. In 1874–78 he had charge of the photographic laboratory at Cornell University. He moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where ...

Medal, the highest award of the Optical Society of America, "recognizing overall distinction in optics."Frederic Ives Medal http://www.osa.org/aboutosa/awards/osaawards/awardsdesc/ivesquinn/default.aspx Quimby Duntley died in La Jolla on October 22, 1999.

References

External links

Articles Published by early OSA Presidents
Journal of the Optical Society of America

Education

Career

Institutional affiliations and awards

References

External links

See also