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Matthew Rimmer Honored With Conrady Award: Optical MEMS For Lightwave Networks

Matthew Rimmer was honored with the 2014 A.E. Conrady Award for his contributions to optical design algorithm development over the last five decades. As a key developer for optical design software, Rimmer's work has helped advance computer-aided design and is still used in software like CodeV. While modest, Rimmer developed numerous algorithms without proper credit and was influential in the field as a theoretician and algorithm developer. The A.E. Conrady Award recognizes exceptional contributions to designing, testing, and evaluating optical systems.

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161 views

Matthew Rimmer Honored With Conrady Award: Optical MEMS For Lightwave Networks

Matthew Rimmer was honored with the 2014 A.E. Conrady Award for his contributions to optical design algorithm development over the last five decades. As a key developer for optical design software, Rimmer's work has helped advance computer-aided design and is still used in software like CodeV. While modest, Rimmer developed numerous algorithms without proper credit and was influential in the field as a theoretician and algorithm developer. The A.E. Conrady Award recognizes exceptional contributions to designing, testing, and evaluating optical systems.

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tom10aus
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For immediate release

Matthew Rimmer honored with Conrady Award


BELLINGHAM, Washington, USA — 14 March 2014 — Matthew (Chuck) Rimmer, retired Chief Scientist
with Optical Research Associates (now Synopsys) in Pasadena, California, is the 2014 recipient of the A.E.
Conrady Award in recognition of his contributions to optical design algorithm development as
exemplified by his work in the area of wavefront differential tolerancing.

“He has played a central role in the development of optical design software over the last five decades, a
period of dramatic growth in computer-aided design and computing power,” said SPIE Fellow David
Williamson. “In particular, his work permeates the CodeV optical design program, which is widely
considered to be the most accurate and powerful commercial software, used by optical designers
worldwide for their most challenging applications.”

Rimmer has been an industry influential theoretician and algorithm developer for optical design and
analysis software since the beginning of computer-aided simulation. He is perhaps best known for his
clarification and programming of FORTRAN, the fifth order transverse aberration coefficients of
Buchdahl, which have since become the basis for computing the wave aberration coefficients of H.H.
Hopkins.

Although much of his work at Itek was unpublished, Rimmer was a key resource for the optical design
and analysis tools in Itek’s CORONA program. His most widely recognized contributions to the field have
been through Synopsys’ CodeV software, including MTF optimization and tolerancing features,
computer-aided alignment, relative illumination calculations, raytracing through inhomogeneous media,
and partially coherent imaging.

Rimmer is an SPIE Member and has taught student courses at SPIE events, including Optical MEMS for
Lightwave Networks. He has published dozens of journal articles and papers.

“Chuck was always so clever and fast at these developments and so modest that he never received the
recognition he deserved,” said James Wyant of The University of Arizona, Tucson. “He was the first at
developing numerous optical design and analysis computer algorithms and he was always willing to
share these algorithms with others without asking for the credit he deserved. He deserves an award
such as the SPIE Conrady Award.”

The A. E. Conrady Award is given annually in recognition of exceptional contributions in design,


construction, and testing of optical systems and instrumentation. The recognition of this award is based
on developments of new equipment, techniques, and applications for designing, testing, analyzing,
and/or evaluating optical systems, components, and theories.

For more information on the 2014 SPIE Award recipients and past winners, visit www.spie.org/x45.xml.
SPIE presents several yearly awards that recognize outstanding individual and team technical
accomplishments and meritorious service to the Society. SPIE urges you to nominate a colleague for his
or her outstanding achievements. Nominations may be made through October 1 of any given year and
are considered active for three years from the submission date. Visit www.spie.org/x1164.xml for
instructions and nomination forms.

SPIE is the international society for optics and photonics, a not-for-profit organization founded in 1955
to advance light-based technologies. The Society serves nearly 235,000 constituents from approximately
155 countries, offering conferences, continuing education, books, journals, and a digital library in
support of interdisciplinary information exchange, professional networking, and patent precedent. SPIE
provided $3.2 million in support of education and outreach programs in 2013.

###

Stacey Crockett
Media Relations Coordinator
SPIE
[email protected]
360 685 5458

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