Parameswaran Hariharan

Parameswaran Hariharan was well-known for his work on photographic resolving power and was awarded the Joseph Fraunhofer Award in 1989 for his pioneering scientific and engineering contributions to interferometry, laser speckle and holography.

Hariharan, born 24 December 1926, was the son of Prof. H. Parameswaran (H. P. Waran) of Presidency College and the son-in-law of Alladi Krishnaswamy Iyer.

He worked at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), New Delhi from 1949 to 1951 and then at the National Research Council, Ottawa from 1951-1954. On returning to NPL, Hariharan received a PhD for his work on photographic resolving power. Subsequently, he held key posts at several scientific institutes and organizations and was also an honorary visiting professor at the University of Sydney.

Hariharan's research contributions include the design of a new three-beam interferometer, the double-passed Fabry-Perot interferometer, and the first practical radial-shear interferometer. He was also the first to apply digital phase-shifting techniques to holographic interferometry for measurements of vector displacements and strains. Dr. Hariharan has published more than 200 papers and has authored four books. He was a Fellow of OSA and the recipient of several awards, including the Thomas Young Medal of the Institute of Physics, London and the Walter Boas Medal of the Australian Institute of Physics.