Changing of the guard

Rebecca C. Jernigan, rebecca.jernigan@laurin.com

Michael T. Houk, co-founder and vice president of technology at Bristol Instruments Inc. in Victor, N.Y., has joined the Editorial Advisory Board of Photonics Spectra. He replaces longtime member William Gornall, a respected industry consultant, who has retired.

Houk’s current research interests focus on novel wavelength measurement methods, laser frequency stabilization and Fourier-based spectral analysis.

Before helping to found Bristol Instruments, a developer of optical interferometer-based laser wavelength meters and laser spectrum analyzers, he was a project manager and senior optical engineer for Exfo Burleigh Products Group Inc., also in Victor. There, he participated in the development of more than 20 interferometer-based products.

Houk earned a doctorate in optical engineering from the Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester in New York, where he studied the design, fabrication and testing of index gradients in fluoride materials. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from Kalamazoo College in Michigan.