About
In Memoriam: Walter F. Buell,
Nov 02, 2018
Walter “Wally” Buell, OSA Fellow, active volunteer and life member, has passed away. Buell was a recognized leader in the national security and aerospace community. He had been the Principal Director of the Electronics and Photonics Laboratory at the Aerospace Corporation. Buell recently completed his term as Co-Chair of the Applications of Lasers for Sensing and Free Space Communications Conference (2016 and 2018) and was a member of the OSA R. W. Wood Prize Committee. Buell was selected in 2017 as an OSA Fellow for technical leadership in the development, application and exploitation of advanced laser radar technology and in building a broad based community of researchers, developers and users of active EO systems.
In his position at the Aerospace Corporation, Buell lead three Research and Development teams totaling more than 100 scientists and engineers. Buell published over 40 papers in atomic, molecular, and optical physics and held three patents. He served as vice-chair of the National Academy of Science’s Committee on Review of Advancements in Active Electro-Optical Systems to Avoid Technological Surprise Adverse to U.S. National Security. Buell served as a member of the American Physical Society (APS) Joint Task Force on Undergraduate Physics Programs, a member of the APS Industrial Physics Advisory Board and a served as a mentor through the APS IMPact and Local Links programs.
OSA and the scientific community mourns the loss of Walter Buell.
