OSA Fellow Georg H. Hass was born in Hanau, Germany in 1913. He received his education in physics at the Institute of Technology in Danzing and was a faculty member there until 1946. After, he joined the US Army Night Vision Laboratory in Fort Belvoir, VA and worked there until his retirement in 1971. He continued his career as a consultant to several laboratories.

Hass’ research focused on understanding the structure and behavior of evaporated thin films and the application of these films to reflective and anti-reflective coatings for both the visible and the ultraviolet spectral regions. He has been described as one of the father of optical thin-film science and technology.

He served on the Board of Directors of OSA and on many of its committees, including service of more than 20 years as an associate editor of the Journal of the Optical Society of America. He was also a Fellow of the American Physical Society, and the Washington Academy of Sciences and a recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Medard W. Welch Award of the American Vacuum Society.

He was the principal and founding editor of, and a contributor to, the review series, Physics of Thin Films, Advances in Research and Development. Eleven volumes of this series have been published. His list of publications begins in 1937 and contains more than 125 entries.

In 1991, he was awarded OSA's highest honor the Frederic Ives Medal/Jarus Quinn Prize "in recognition of his contributions to the understanding of the structure and behavior of evaporated thin films and the application of these films to reflective and anti-reflective coatings for both the visible and the ultraviolet spectral regions."

Hass died in 2003.