Ray Williamson, Consulting Engineer

"Real solutions - clear, correct, practical, workable, and what you want."

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What's New

"SPIE Field Guide to Optical Fabrication"

My new book can be ordered through SPIE at http://spie.org/x648.html?product_id=892101  It is one of a VERY few books written in the last twenty years on the subjects of optical fabrication and testing.  It is inexpensive, concise, practical, and contains information not published elsewhere. It is currently an SPIE best-seller and has been getting highly positive reviews.

"More than most people know about the Nikon autocollimator"

I presented this talk at the APOMA Workshop in Tucson, November 2010. I'll be glad to do it again at your location.

OptiFab, Rochester NY, May 9-12

My talk titled "More that meets the eye" was the first of the conference.  It's a collection of handy tips and tricks to extract more information from naked-eye observations, plus ways to use handy objects for measurements.  "Handy shop formulas" is a poster paper, a collection of useful math for the practicing opticker - some of it not to be found in print elsewhere.  It's an extended version of what I've posted on this website.

SPIE Optics and Photonics, San Diego, August 21-25, 2011

Our Optical Manufacturing and Testing conference is coming up again during the SPIE annual meeting.  My co-chairs are Dr. James Burge and Dr. Oliver Fähnle.

SPIE San Diego 2009

Our Optical Manufacturing and Testing conference during the SPIE annual meeting included many worthwhile presentations.  The proceedings are now available at

http://scitation.aip.org/vsearch/servlet/VerityServlet?smode=strresults&SMODE=strsearch&possible1zone=article&pjournals=PSISDG&KEY=PSISDG&sort=rel&maxdisp=25&threshold=0&deliveryType=spiedl&possible1=7426&submit=Search

Optician Training program available

A group of VLOC leads and supervisors completed my training program in June '06.  OptiMax has collaborated on video and animations, and sent 120 people to sessions. Portions have been presented at IRD Glass and Tower Optical.  This program is one of less than a handful of precision optician training programs in the U.S.  It is available for presentation at your company.

Thoughts for the moment

"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers."  Thomas Pynchon

"The way you see people is the way you treat them and the way you treat them is what they become." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"If you have a problem you cannot solve, enlarge the context." French diplomat Jean Monnet

"If reality is the night sky then words are the constellations" Anonymous

"A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song." Maya Angelou

"Of those who say nothing, few are silent." Thomas Neill

"A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will never sit."  Dr. Elton Trueblood

"The problem, if you love it, is as beautiful as the sunset."  Jiddu Krishnamurti

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” Albert Schweitzer

"You cannot prove the nonexistence of God; you just have to take it on faith." Woody Allen

"The world's cemeteries are full of indispensable men."  Charles DeGaulle

"The map is not the territory."  Alfred Korzybski

"A skeptic questions your assumptions; a cynic questions your motivation."  Rey San Pascual

"I dream of a world in which chickens can cross the road without having their motives questioned."  Attribution unknown.

"Revenge is often like biting a dog because the dog bit you."  Austin O'Malley

"Courage is the choice to accept the consequences of a life not controlled by fear."  Larry McGinty

"On the outskirts of every agony sits some observant fellow who points."  Virginia Woolf

"A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd."  Max Lucado

"The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution." Bertrand Russell