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Michael Kidger Memorial Scholarship /
Awardees / Winner 2007
Michael Kidger Memorial Scholarship:
AWARDEE - FLORIAN FOURNIER
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My first contact with optics happened in the science museum of Paris when I was about
14 years old. I saw there the image of a metallic spring floating in air, and my hand could
go through it. I now know the image was created by a spherical mirror, but the illusion
still strikes me whenever I see it. I really started diving into the field of optics at the Institut d’Optique, one of the few optical engineering schools in Europe. By the end of my second year at the Institut d’Optique, I decided to go to an off-campus location which specialized in optical system design and optical measurement for industry. Much to my surprise, I discovered that most engineers who deal with optics in industry don’t have a formal optics background. It convinced me that a career in optics was a good choice.
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Sometime later, I spent an 8-month internship at MSC Inspection Worldwide, a company which develops inspection machines for glass articles, under the mentorship of Dr. Jean-Louis Meyzonnette, an expert in radiometry in Europe. From that experience I wanted to keep working on industry-related projects, so I applied to the College of Optics and Photonics at the University of Central Florida where I joined Dr Jannick Rolland’s research group, the ODALab.
In the ODALab we had the opportunity and the funding to start working on the concept of an LED-based projector for simulation and training applications. I struggled to understand the concept of étendue conservation, a customary hardship when entering the illumination design community. I investigated devices like mixing rods, tapered rods, compound parabolic concentrators, and lenslet arrays.
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Florian receiving 2007 Award Certificate
from Tina Kidger
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Oxfordshire, UK 22 Sept 07
(Photo courtesy STFC, UK)
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With the constant progress of solid state lighting and the corresponding need for illumination solutions, I have become truly excited about illumination design. Therefore, I plan to extend my career in optical system design to include illumination optics. Finally, I hope to start a mini-lab of my own to play with LEDs and build my own prototypes.
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