Emmett Norman Leith (March 12, 1927 inDetroit, Michigan – December 23, 2005 inAnn Arbor, Michigan) was aprofessor ofelectrical engineering at theUniversity of Michigan and, withJuris Upatnieks of the University of Michigan, the co-inventor of three-dimensionalholography.
Leith received his B.S. inphysics fromWayne State University in 1949 and his M.S. in physics in 1952. He received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Wayne State in 1978. Much of Leith's holographic work was an outgrowth of his research onsynthetic aperture radar (SAR) performed while a member of the Radar Laboratory of the University of Michigan'sWillow Run Laboratory beginning in 1952. Leith joined the University of Michigan as a research assistant and was promoted to graduate research assistant in 1955, research associate in 1956, research engineer in 1960, associate professor in 1965, and full professor in 1968.[1]
Professor Leith and his coworker Juris Upatnieks at theUniversity of Michigan displayed three-dimensional hologram at a conference of theOptical Society of America in 1964.
He received the 1960IEEE Morris N. Liebmann Memorial Award and theStuart Ballantine Medal in 1969. In 1975 he was awarded theWilliam F. Meggers Award by theOptical Society. In 1979, PresidentJimmy Carter awarded Leith with theNational Medal of Science for his research. He was awarded the 1985Frederic Ives Medal by theOSA.
Two members of theBenton family from the animated TV seriesJem and The Holograms were named after Emmett Leith: Emmett Benton and his adopted daughter, Aja Leith.
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