Liying Chen: 2000 Awardee

“I am the only child of a loving family in China. Both of my parents were my teachers before I went to school. My mother is a High School Physics teacher. She instilled in me my interest in physics and related sciences. My father is a chemical engineer who helped me to learn about the natural sciences. After I completed my basic schooling, I was an undergraduate at the University of Science and Technology of China. My major was mathematics and physics. I really appreciated the opportunity to learn so much fundamental science from the professors in my school. This strong base has helped me to formulate my future goals.

“After joining the Optical Sciences Center at the University of Arizona, I began to focus on optical system testing and design. I worked in Dr. Jim Wyant’s laboratory for a year. The practical work and research made me aware of the importance of optical system analysis and the resulting optical design. I have learned a great deal about optical design by studying the work of previous optical designers. This is the main reason for my project with Dr. Harry Barrett.

“My research deals with determination of the statistics for both practical applications and theoretical observations of lens design. For example, with an optically coupled X-ray diagnostic imager, I obtained images from an existing X-ray imager with different FOVs and with different f/numbers. As a result, I hope to gain enough information for a future simulation. Based on the simulation results, the detectability and other merit figures can be used to characterize the system and further optimize the system design.”