SPIE Fellow Mansoor Sheik-Bahae, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of New Mexico (UNM), passed away on 10 July 2023.
Sheik-Bahae was renowned for the invention of the Z-scan technique, pioneering contributions to solid-state laser cooling, shedding light on the dispersion properties of nonlinear refraction in solids, and much more. He initiated numerous collaborations with institutions from all over the world and was a highly sought-after mentor and speaker.
Sheik-Bahae came to the US in the midst of the Islamic Revolution and received his BS and MS in Electrical Engineering from Catholic University in Washington, D.C. followed by a PhD from the State University of New York at Buffalo. After time at the Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers (CREOL) at the University of Central Florida, Mansoor joined the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UNM in 1994 where he successfully secured research grants and led his research group focused on laser cooling in solids, ultrafast phenomena, and nonlinear optics.
Sheik-Bahae was generous with his time and expertise and contributed both to the UNM community and to scientific organizations. He served as the General Chair of the Optical Science and Engineering Program (OSE) at UNM from 2003-2009, Director of Consortium for Laser Cooling in Solids (CLCS) from 2004-2022, and as a Member of the Board of Directors of UNM's Science and Technology Transfer Corporation STC.
For SPIE, Sheik-Bahae was an author and served as conference chair and session chair at SPIE Photonics West from 2007 to 2012.
Read the full tribute from the Optical Science and Engineering Program at UNM.
