| RefNo | EC/1980/37 |
| Previous numbers | Cert XX, 214 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Welford, Walter Thompson: certificate of election to the Royal Society |
| Date | 1977 |
| Description | Citation typed |
| Citation | The candidate has made original contributions in many fields of optics, including the first general treatment of thin film multilayers; the properties of diffraction gratings; the physical theory of image formation in microscopes with a major study of the visual Mach effect; and the application of holographic lenses to microscopy and head-up displays. In 1971 he published his most fundamental contribution to geometrical optics, a generalization of the work of Abbe on stationarity of aberrations, which has led to the unification of many aspects of aberration theory. In optical instrumentation the candidate has an international reputation in bubble chamber optics, being responsible for the introduction of telecentric imaging; in the exploitation of speckle for the measurement of surface roughness and for astronomy; in the design of concentrators for solar radiation. More recently he has designed novel high-aperture optics for the laser compression experiment at the SRC Cental Laser Facility. It is clear that the candidate has been increasingly active in optical design and engineering over the last few years and the value of his work is recognised internationally. |
| AccessStatus | Closed |
Fellows associated with this archive
| Code | PersonName | Dates |
| NA232 | Welford; Walter Thompson (1916 - 1990) | 1916 - 1990 |