Joseph (Joe) and Honmai Goodman established the J.W. and H.M Goodman Endowed Chair in Optical Sciences to support faculty who are committed to taking discoveries in optics to new heights.
Joe Goodman, a renowned optical scientist, has been a steadfast leader in both the academic and corporate dimensions of the global optics community for many decades.
Joe held various positions at Stanford University from 1963 through his retirement in January 2001, including chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering and senior associate dean for faculty and academic affairs of the School of Engineering. He has authored more than 220 technical papers and served as PhD thesis advisor for 49 students – three have become faculty at Wyant College.
He has written four major textbooks: Introduction to Fourier Optics, Statistical Optics, Speckle Phenomena in Optics and, with R.M. Gray, Fourier Transforms: An Introduction for Engineers. Joe is also a co-founder of Roberts and Company Publishers.
In the business world, Joe served as a Director of several corporations, including Optivision, Inc. (of which he was a co-founder), ONI Systems (for which he was the founding Chairman of the Board), and E-TEK Dynamics. He served on the Board of Directors for Ondax, Inc. and as the Chairman of the Board of Nanoprecision Products, Inc., (a company he co-founded).
He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, IEEE, OSA (now Optica) and SPIE. Among his accolades are the OSA Frederic Ives Medal and the SPIE Gold Medal, both societies’ most distinguished awards. He also served as OSA President in 1992.
In 2018, he was named an Honorary Member of Optica, a membership that is most distinguished from all other Optica Member categories. Receiving this honor, Joe was recognized for his fundamental contributions in the fields of Fourier Optics and Optical Information Processing through his research, teaching and classic textbooks.
Honmai Goodman, a native of Macau (once a Portuguese colony), received an undergraduate degree from Clark College, in Dubuque, Iowa. Upon completing her internship with Stanford University Hospital, she remained employed at the hospital as a dietitian until her retirement.
For several decades, Joe and Honmai have been philanthropic supporters for projects in the areas of Arts & Culture; Environment; Education; and Health & Human Services.
J.W. and H.M. Goodman Endowed Chair in Optical Sciences Chair Holder
2020 - current
Dr. David J. Brady, OSC Professor
Research Specialty: Image Science