Optics+Photonics 2022: Zygo’s Peter de Groot elected into SPIE presidential chain

22 Aug 2022

Society’s next Vice President is also an honorary professor at the University of Nottingham, UK.

Peter de Groot, chief scientist at Zygo, a developer of advanced optical metrology systems and components, has been elected to serve as the 2023 Vice President of SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics. With his election, De Groot joins the SPIE presidential chain. He will serve as President-Elect in 2024, and as the Society's President in 2025.

SPIE 2022 President Anita Mahadevan-Jansen, a professor at Vanderbilt University, made the announcement along with other SPIE election results at this year's Annual General Meeting of the Society on 22 August, during SPIE Optics + Photonics, taking place this week, in San Diego, Ca. New terms begin on 1 January 2023.

At Zygo, de Groot works on the invention and development of new optical metrology instruments and applications. In addition to 140 patents for new optical instruments and techniques, he has published 200 technical papers, tutorials, and book chapters in physics, education, optics, and metrology.

Longtime involvement

De Groot, an SPIE Fellow, has a longtime involvement with SPIE. He has served as both member and advisor to the Board of Directors, and is a current member of the Financial Advisory Committee and chair for the Symposia committee.

He has presented more than 50 papers at SPIE conferences, organizes SPIE conferences, and offers professional short courses in optical metrology. In 2016, he received the Society’s Rudolf Kingslake Medal for the most noteworthy original paper in the SPIE journal Optical Engineering.

“I am delighted to have been chosen to serve as the next vice president and, eventually, president of SPIE,” commented De Groot. “There has never been a more exciting time to be in optics and photonics, nor a more challenging time for SPIE to adapt to a rapidly changing professional environment.

“All of us at SPIE share the vision of a more inclusive, global, effective, and sustainable home for accelerating light-based research, supporting new product development, and advancing career opportunities for both rising and established scientists and engineers. I am looking forward to working with the exceptional people on the SPIE staff and in leadership to realize the shared aspirations of our members,” he added.

Alongside De Groot, Bernard Kress, director of XR hardware at Google, will serve as the 2023 SPIE President while the University of Arizona’s Jennifer Barton will serve as President-Elect.

Jim McNally, CEO of StratTHNK Associates, was elected to serve as the 2023 SPIE Secretary/Treasurer. The following newly elected Society Directors will serve three-year terms from 2023-2025:

• Jessica DeGroote Nelson, Edmund Optics’ senior director of optical product development.
• David Hagan, Pegasus Professor and dean of CREOL, the College of Optics and Photonics at the University of Central Florida.
• Miles Padgett, Royal Society Research Professor and Kelvin Chair at the University of Glasgow.
• Laura Waller, professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

The SPIE nominating committee accepts recommendations for the election slate on an ongoing basis. Directors, who serve a three-year term, are expected to attend and participate in three board meetings each year.