Kidger Optics Associates: Michael Kidger Memorial Scholarship: Awardees: Winner 2007

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Michael Kidger Memorial Scholarship:
2007 AWARDEE - FLORIAN FOURNIER

Award Year 2007

Florian Fournier, a graduate research assistant at The College of Optics and Photonics, University of Central Florida, was selected as the 2007 Michael Kidger Memorial Scholarship awardee. Florian's supervisor is Dr Jannick Rolland, Associate Professor of Optics, College of Optics and Photonics, CREOL. The award was presented at the UK Optical Design Meeting (UK ODM) on 19 September 2007 by Tina Kidger at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Oxfordshire, UK. The award consists of a $5,000 cash grant supported by the Michael Kidger Memorial Scholarship Fund.

In the following Florian discusses a few details of his education and experience:
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. 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.

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. 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.

Florian receiving 2007 Award Certificate
from Tina Kidger
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Oxfordshire, UK 22 Sept 07
(Photo courtesy STFC, UK)

Update 2020

From 2010 to 2014, Florian worked at Synopsys on the development of new features for the optical design software LightTools. Since 2014 Florian has been working as part of the Camera Hardware team at Apple. He now leads a team dedicated to illumination optics, which includes the development of camera flash modules and stray light management for all the iPhone cameras.

Update 2010

Florian is currently a PhD candidate in the Optical Diagnostics and Applications laboratory (ODAlab), headed by Prof Jannick Rolland, CREOL, The College of Optics and Photonics, University of Central Florida where he anticipates receiving a PhD degree in August 2010. His primary research interest is the design and optimization of non-imaging systems involving freeform surfaces. Florian previously studied the design of freeform lightpipes and applied his findings to improve the performance of LED projection displays. Recently, Florian has been focusing on the design of freeform reflectors for illumination devices such as streetlights and automotive headlights. He has devised a design method to tailor reflector shapes according to a desired light distribution over a target, which takes into account the extent of the light source. Florian's goal is to refine this approach so that designers can quickly produce efficient designs that avoid unnecessary energy consumption and light pollution.

For his work on "Freeform Reflector Design using Integrable Maps," Florian received the best paper award at the International Optical Design Conference (IODC) held in Jackson Hole, Wyoming June 13-17 2010.

In August 2010 Florian was awarded a Ph.D. degree from the College of Optics and Photonics, University of Central Florida.

Florian Fournier
and Kayla 2020