Microsoft’s Bernard Kress elected to SPIE presidential chain

24 Aug 2020

New vice president is technology industry leader in augmented, virtual and mixed reality development.

SPIE Fellow Bernard Kress, Partner Optical Architect on the HoloLens Team at Microsoft, and formerly Principal Optical Architect at Google X, has been elected to serve as the 2021 Vice President of SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics.

With his election, Kress joins the SPIE presidential chain, and will serve as President-Elect in 2022 and as the Society's President in 2023.

SPIE 2020 President John Greivenkamp of the University of Arizona’s Wyant College of Optical Sciences made the announcement along with other SPIE election results at this year’s Annual General Meeting of the Society on 24 August during the SPIE Optics + Photonics Digital Forum (ongoing through August 28th). Terms begin on 1 January 2021.

Kress has served on numerous SPIE committees including Nominating, Strategic Planning, and Symposia. He was an elected member of the SPIE Board of Directors from 2017-2019. A longtime SPIE course instructor, field guide and book author, and member of various technical committees, he has chaired many conferences and is the founding chair of the popular SPIE AR/VR/MR Symposium held concurrently with SPIE Photonics West.

He received his Habilitation to Direct Research from the University of Haute-Alsace, Mulhouse, his doctorate in Photonic Systems from the University of Strasbourg in conjunction with UC San Diego, and his “Grande Ecole d’Ingénieur” degree in Physics from the École Nationale Supérieure de Physique de Strasbourg.

'Unprecedented challenges'

“I am very grateful to the SPIE membership for the trust they have invested in me by electing me to the presidential chain of the Society,” said Kress. “The Society stands today at a crossroad with unprecedented challenges but also unprecedented opportunities. My goal is to help steer the Society's message and services to fully take advantage of the opportunities to better serve a very diverse optics and photonics community in all professional levels and geographical sectors.”

Alongside Kress, David Andrews, a professor at the University of East Anglia, UK, will serve as 2021 SPIE President. Jason Mulliner, Chief Financial Officer at Alluxa Inc., was elected to serve as the 2021 SPIE Secretary/Treasurer.

The following newly elected Society Directors will serve three-year terms from 2021-2023:

• Ruth Houbertz, CEO and Managing Director, Multiphoton Optics GmbH
• Elizabeth Krupinski, Professor and Vice Chair of Research, Emory University School of Medicine
• Kyle Myers, Director, Division of Imaging, Diagnostics, and Software Reliability, Office of Science and Engineering Laboratories, Center for Devices and Radiological Health, US Food and Drug Administration
• M. Cather Simpson, Chief Science Officer, Engender Technologies Ltd. and Professor of Physics and Chemical Sciences, University of Auckland, New Zealand

The SPIE nominating committee accepts recommendations for the election slate on an ongoing basis. Directors, who serve a three-year term, are expected to attend and participate in three board meetings each year.