OSSC elevated Four New Fellows at its September 11, 2024 meeting. The Board of Directors may from time to time recognize individuals who have performed outstanding service to the Society and to the optical industry of Southern California by electing them to the honorary title of Fellow.
The induction process was coordinated by OSSC Fellow and Chair of the Fellows Committee Harvey Spencer. As illustrated by their biographies, the candidates demonstrate exemplary service to the Society and to the optical industry of Southern California. These candidates received strong approval for induction as Fellows from the OSSC Board of Directors.
Nicholas Croglio is a past and current OSSC President who has been, Vice President, a Councilor, Programs Chair and Arrangements chair multiple times. He earned his B.S. in Optics from the University of Rochester, M.S. in Optical Sciences & Engineering from the University of Central Florida, and MS Degrees in Management of Science & Technology as well as Computational Finance from OHSU. He has held a variety of senior technical and management positions, and he is an expert at motivating teams to complete tasks that thwarted the individuals previously.
David Hasenauer served as OSSC President in 1997-1998. He has been an OSSC member since 1990, and first joined the board as Arrangements Chair in 1994. He has also served as the Program Chair, Secretary, and Newsletter Editor. He helped to coordinate several OSSC meetings at Optical Research Associates/Synopsys, as well as OSSC tours at the Mount Wilson Observatory (MWO) and the Hale Solar Lab in San Marino, CA. Dave is also a Senior Member of Optica and the SPIE. Dave was also the featured speaker at the September 11, 2024 OSSC meeting.
Russell Rauch is an Independent Electro-Optic Professional since his retirement from Xerox Corporation in 2011. He is currently in third term as OSSC Membership Chair, and served as OSSC Program Chair during the covid pandemic, providing an online program, when OSSC could not meet in person. Recently Russell was a volunteer consultant to a Midwestern university medical ophthalmology group for several months. Russell was an engineer at Xerox in southern California for 33 years and received 13 US patents. Russell received a BA in Physics from New York University and an MS in Solid State (aka Condensed Matter) Physics from the University of Illinois Urbana.
Brian Monacelli (UCF CREOL Optics PhD, U Rochester Optics MS, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology BS Optical Engineering) helped send to Mars a laser-based Raman and fluorescence spectrometer, the SHERLOC instrument, on the Perseverance rover and he led the team to align and deliver the Coronagraph Instrument of the Roman Space Telescope, but he is most proud to teach and support technicians. Monacelli has been creating curricula and experiments used to teach technicians applied, hands-on laboratory skills since 2006. He began teaching technicians while working as an optical engineer with Raytheon. This training evolved into the Laser Technology program at Pasadena City College (PCC) which offers an Associate of Science degree in Laser Technology. Through his work, he has taught optics lab skills to his graduates who are now employed by organizations such as Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, JPL, Space X, Alcon, Johnson and Johnson, Masimo, Northrup Grumman, Boeing, the US Air Force, and even Disney.