Emmett Leith, holography innovator and WSU alum, dies

Holographic innovator and Wayne State University electrical engineering alum Emmett Leith was planning to retire Dec. 31 after 52 years at the University of Michigan. But Leith, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science, died of an internal hemorrhage Dec. 23 after falling ill the day before at his home in Canton. He was 78.

"He's known as the person who made practical holography possible," Gary Adams, who worked for Leith at the U-M Institute of Science and Technology lab, told the Ann Arbor News. Leith uncovered the principles of the hologram while working at the lab in the mid-50s. Between 1961 and 1964, Leith and fellow researcher Juris Upatnieks made a series of presentations to the Optical Society of America describing three major advances in holography, which uses lasers to create three-dimensional images.

Leith was born in Detroit. He earned all his college degrees from Wayne State: a bachelor's in liberal arts and sciences in 1950, a master's in physics in 1952, a his PhD in electrical engineering in 1978.

Just before he fell ill, Leith was honored at his retirement party. He had worked at U-M for 52 years.