Stephen A. Benton was a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor and the inventor of the rainbow hologram

Rainbow hologram

The rainbow or Benton hologram is a type of hologram invented in 1968 by Dr. Stephen A. Benton at Polaroid Corporation . Rainbow holograms are designed to be viewed under white light illumination, rather than laser light which was required before this...

 and a pioneer in medical imaging and fine arts holography.

Biography

He was born in San Francisco in 1941 and grew up in Santa Barbara, Calif. He graduated from Santa Barbara High School in 1959. According to a published obituary, Benton first became interested in optics at 11 when he wore a pair of 3-D glasses to view the Vincent Price movie, "The House of Wax." He received his undergraduate degree from MIT in electrical engineering (1963) and worked with stroboscopy pioneer Professor Harold "Doc" Edgerton. During this time, Benton also worked at the Polaroid

Polaroid Corporation

Polaroid Corporation is an American-based international consumer electronics and eyewear company, originally founded in 1937 by Edwin H. Land. It is most famous for its instant film cameras, which reached the market in 1948, and continued to be the company's flagship product line until the February...

 Corp., participating in Edwin Land's vision research laboratory. He received the M.S. (1964) and Ph.D. (1968) from Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

. Benton held 14 patents in optical physics and photography, taught media arts and sciences at MIT. He was also the director of the MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies.

External links

• Holography pioneer Stephen Benton dies at 61, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
  
  , November 12, 2003.
• Stephen A Benton's Obituary on 'Blog of Death',
• Oral History interview transcript with Stephen Benton 11 July 2003, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives