Florida Tech’s Charles Bostater Named SPIE Fellow
Charles Bostater Jr., associate professor of physical oceanography and environmental sciences in the Department of Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences, has been named a Fellow of SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics.
Bostater received this high honor for his achievements in remote sensing instrumentation and radiative transfer modeling.
He was among 88 new Fellows announced this year. They will join just 1,400 SPIE members who have become Fellows since the society’s inception in 1955. Fellows are members of distinction who have made significant scientific and technical contributions in the multidisciplinary fields of optics, photonics, and imaging. They are honored for their technical achievement and for their service to the general optics community and to SPIE in particular.
In addition to his duties in the College of Science and Engineering, Bostater serves as director of Florida Tech’s Marine Environmental Optics Lab and the university’s Center for Remote Sensing.
He is the named inventor on five international patents involving the development of non-contact sensing technology, instrumentation and sondes – probes – used for measuring backscattered electromagnetic radiation. Bostater has designed and utilized a new underwater optical camera system to measure flocs and colloidal aggregates in shallow water bodies. He pioneered the use of passive sondes to measure the bottom boundary layer in natural waters, a technique now being used internationally.
Bostater has over 81 SPIE-reviewed publications, including serving as co-editor of 18 reviewed books. He has received funding from a variety of leading organizations, including NASA, the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, NOAA, Northrop Grumman and the State of Florida.
Students and faculty have access to SPIE publications free of charge through the library.
“This is a well-deserved accolade for Chuck,” said Richard Aronson, head of the Department of Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences.
“SPIE’s professional society, publications and meetings have influenced my professional life more anyone can ever imagine,” Bostater said. “It is a wonderful honor to be elected a SPIE fellow.”
###
