Harold Osterberg received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Wisconsin in 1931 and continued his work there as a research associate from 1931 to 1937. In 1937 he joined the American Optical Co., where he worked as a research physicist until his retirement in 1971. In 1983, he received OSA’s David Richardson Medal “for a career spanning 40 years of research in physical optics, particularly his contributions to the development of the phase microscope and his seminal contributions to integrated optics.”