Nicholas Takaki: 2019 Awardee
Michael Kidger Memorial Scholarship
University of Rochester
The 2019 winner of the Michael Kidger Memorial Scholarship award is Nicholas Takaki, a fourth-year PhD student at The Institute of Optics, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, University of Rochester, working with Prof. Jannick Rolland, Brian J. Thompson Professor of Optical Engineering. Nicholas received a BS & MS simultaneously in Applied & Computational Mathematics from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with honors in August, 2015.
The 2019 Kidger scholarship award was presented to Nicholas at the UK Optical Design Meeting (UKODM-2019), Imperial College, South Kensington, London, 19 September 2019, by Fabian Dürr, Chairman, Kidger Scholarship Committee. The award consisted of a $5,000 cash grant supported by the Michael Kidger Memorial Scholarship Fund.
Research Highlights
UK Optical Design Meeting 2019
Imperial College London
19 September 2019
Fabian Dürr presents the Kidger Scholarship
award to
Nicholas Takaki
Nicholas’ research focuses on using the mathematics of freeform surface descriptions to develop methods that lead to surfaces that are easier to manufacture and test. The research incorporates the use of both Zernike and 2D-Q orthogonal polynomials, whose properties can uniquely contribute to the description of freeform surface shape. Such properties have been leveraged by the 1D-Q polynomials to achieve easier fabrication and test of axisymmetric optical aspheres. Nicholas hopes to achieve similar improvements through the use of orthogonal polynomials for freeform optics. His work is being mentored by Professor Jannick Roland and Professor Greg Forbes, Macquarie University.