MS039: Alan and Audrey Carlan Collection of Harold Osterberg Papers

Harold Osterberg received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1931. The title of his thesis was “An Interferometer method of studying the vibrations of an oscillating quartz plate.” Dr. Osterberg taught at the University of Wisconsin, Madison until 1939, when he joined Spencer Lens Company in Buffalo, New York, which was then the Instrument Division of American Optical Company. In the 1950s he was head of the Mathematics Section of American Optical’s Research Center in Southbridge, Massachusetts. He continued with American Optical until at least 1977. Dr. Osterberg published papers on optics and lasers, had several patents, and received the David Richardson Medal from the Optical Society of America in 1983. An article by Jeff Hecht titled “Thirty-Five Years of Lasers,” which appeared in Laser Focus World in May 1995, says that Elias Snitzer, Will Hicks and Harold Osterberg made the first single-mode optical fibers.

Audrey Carlan, who took courses with Dr. Osterberg at American Optical Company in the 1950s, said in an article in WPI West magazine that Harold Osterberg inspired her to excel: “’Turn light on and off at the frequency of life,’ he told me, and that ambition of his instantly became mine. I was thrilled by those words.’”