Richard Fork

Richard L. Fork (1 September 1935 – 16 May 2018)[1][2] was an American physicist.

Richard L. Fork
Born(1935-09-01)September 1, 1935
DiedMay 16, 2018(2018-05-16) (aged 82)
Huntsville, Alabama, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materPrincipia College
Scientific career
FieldsPhysics
InstitutionsUniversity of Alabama in Huntsville

Fork received a bachelor's degree in mathematics and physics from Principia College in 1957,[3] and earned his doctorate in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He began working for Bell Laboratories in 1962, and joined the faculty of Rensselaer Institute of Technology in 1990. Four years later, Fork left Rensselaer for the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Over the course of his career, Fork was granted fellowship of the American Physical Society and Optical Society of America. He retired in 2017 and died on May 16, 2018 of respiratory arrest in Huntsville.[3][4]

Achievements

Richard Fork has been very active in the field of generating light pulses with lasers.

  • As early as 1964, he showed that locking the modes of a helium neon laser could produce picosecond pulses.[5]
  • In the early 80's he strongly contributed to the development of femtosecond lasers.[6]
  • In a second part of his career he focused his interest on the use of lasers for protecting Earth from asteroid impacts.[7]

References
  1. "Richard Fork Obituary - Huntsville, Alabama". Legacy.com. Retrieved 2019-04-04.
  2. "Richard Fork Obituary - Alabama - Tributes.com". www.tributes.com.
  3. McMillen, Lynn (May 19, 2018). "Richard Fork – Obituary". Quad City Daily. Archived from the original on May 20, 2018. Retrieved May 29, 2018. Alt URL
  4. Steele, Jim (May 18, 2018). "Dr. Richard Fork, laser visionary and longtime professor, dies". University of Alabama in Huntsville. Retrieved May 29, 2018.
  5. Locking of He–Ne laser modes induced by synchronous intracavity modulation LE Hargrove, RL Fork, MA Pollack - Applied Physics Letters, 1964
  6. Compression of optical pulses to six femtoseconds by using cubic phase compensation RL Fork, CHB Cruz, PC Becker, CV Shank - Optics letters, 1987
  7. Preventing Asteroid Earth Impacts With Laser Technology: Progress and Prospects R Fork - Proceedings of the IEEE, 2007


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