Juris Upatnieks was born in Riga, Latvia, in 1936. The family immigrated to the United States in 1951. Upatnieks received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Akron in 1960 and Master's degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan's Institute of Science and Technology in 1965. Between 1960 and 1972 he worked at the University of Michigan Institute of Science and Technology Willow Run Laboratories, where he held positions from Research Assistant to Research Engineer. In 1962 he and the University of Michigan professor of Electrical Engineering and the Willow Run Laboratories Research Associate Emmet Leith created the first laser transmission hologram of 3-dimensional objects in the United States. Leith and Upatnieks published results of their work on holography in Fall 1963, publicizing it as "lensless photography." They continued working on improvement of their technique using newly available laser to achieve coherence of light and clear 3-dimensional holographic images. Results of their work in this area were presented in 1964 and caused renewed interest to coherent optics, holography, and their practical applications in medicine, optics, data storage, airline safety, space science, the military, the arts, among other fields. Upatnieks reflected on reviving the field of Holography in his work "Development of Holography: from November 1962 to January 1965" (1965)
Between 1973 and 1993 Upatnieks worked at the Environmental Research Institute of Michigan and was an Adjunct Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at University of Michigan. From 1993 to 2001 he consulted as Senior Engineer for Applied Optics research and development laboratories in Ann Arbor, Mich., becoming its director in 2005. Throughout his professional life Upatnieks has collaborated on research projects with faculty members of the University of Michigan Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics. Upatnieks has received nineteen U.S. patents, for ten of which he is the sole inventor.
Juris Upatniekse is a fellow of the Optical Society (OSA) and of the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers, and foreign member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences. In 1975 Upatnieks was awarded the R. W. Wood Prize by the Optical Society of America. In 1976 he was named Inventor of the Year by the American Association for the Advancement of Invention and Innovation and received the Holly Medal by the American Mechanical Society. In 1999 the Latvian Academy of Science awarded him the Grand Medal for contributions of development of the principles of holography and for promoting its use.
From the guide to the Juris Upatnieks papers, 1963-1994, 1965-1979, (Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan)
