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{{Short description|American optical physicist}}

factoids

| birth_place = Riverdale, Kansas19922801|15}}| death_place = Amherst, Massachusetts| residence = | citizenship = | ethnicity = | fields = Physics, Astronomy| workplaces = Caltech, Harvard, Johns Hopkins University| alma_mater = University of Michigan| doctoral_advisor = | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = Martin Summerfield| notable_students = | known_for = OpticsSPIE Gold Medal {{small>(1977)}}| religion = | signature = | footnotes =}}John Donovan Strong (1905-1992) was an American physicist and astronomer.JOURNAL, Sanderson, John A., John Donovan Strong, Physics Today, March 1993, 46, 3, 102–103, 10.1063/1.2808855, free, One of the world's foremost optical scientists of his day, Strong was known for being the first to detect water vapor in the atmosphere of Venus and for developing a number of innovations in optical devices, ranging from improved telescope mirrors to anti-reflective coatings for optical elements and diffraction gratings.

Career

Born in Lawrence, Kansas in 1905,WEB, Howard, John N., [Optical Society of America] Presidents of the Late 1950s,weblink optica.org, Optica, 10 May 2023, January 2011, John Donovan Strong was born in Riverdale, Kansas, on 15 January 1905., Strong received degrees from the University of Kansas (BA 1926) and the University of Michigan (M.S., 1928, Ph.D., 1930). After twelve years at Caltech and wartime research at Harvard on infrared systems, Strong became professor and director of the Astrophysics and Physical Meteorology Laboratories at Johns Hopkins University in 1946, where, among many other projects, he conducted research on balloon astronomy for the Office of Naval Research (ONR). He retired in 1981.WEB, John D. Strong {{!, Optica |url=https://www.optica.org/History/Biographies/bios/John-D--Strong |website=www.optica.org |access-date=8 November 2023}} Strong died of pancreatic cancer in 1992.NEWS, John Donovan Strong,weblink 10 May 2023, The Baltimore Sun, 24 March 1992,weblink 20 June 2021, live, John Donovan Strong, an astronomer who was a professor at Johns Hopkins University before moving to the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, died of cancer Saturday [21 March] at a nursing home in Amherst. He was 87., NEWS, John Strong, 87, Expert in Optics And Astronomy, Lambert, Bruce,weblink 10 May 2023, The New York Times, 28 March 1992,weblink 24 April 2023, John D. Strong, a scientist and inventor who discovered water vapor on Venus and advanced the development of telescope mirrors and other optical devices, died on Saturday at the Amherst Nursing Home in Amherst, Mass. He was 87 years old. He died of pancreatic cancer, his family said.,

Research

Strong published hundreds of papers throughout his career and was author of Procedures in Experimental Physics, a standard physics textbook for many years. Strong served as president of the American Optical Association in 1959 and patented numerous inventions for optics in spectroscopy as well as golf (see PATENT, US, 3720467A, patent, ).

Awards

Strong won Longstreth and Levy Medals from the Franklin Institute and OSA's Frederic Ives Medal.

Selected publications

• BOOK, Strong, John, Procedures in Experimental Physics, 1 January 1986, Lindsay Pubns, 978-0-917914-56-0, 1986th, English,
• BOOK, Strong, John, Concepts of Classical Optics, 15 January 2004, Dover Publications, 978-0-486-43262-5, 2004th, English,
• BOOK, Strong, John, Procedures in Applied Optics, 28 October 1989, Marcel Dekker, Inc., 978-0-8247-7987-0, 1st, English,

See also

• Optica (society)Presidents

References

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External links

• Full article at UMass at Amherst webpage
• Articles Published by early OSA Presidents Journal of the Optical Society of America
• American Institute of Physics oral history of John Strong

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