Illuminating Innovation: Professor Jackson wins Hans Sauer Award

Pictured from left to right: Prof. Dr. H.J. Rheinberger, Dir. of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin; Dr. Myles Jackson, Dibner Family Prof. of History of Science and Technology; Dr. Kurt Becker, Assoc. Provost for Research and Technology Initiatives; and Dr. R. Boch of the Hans Sauer Foundation.

On February 8, Dr. Myles Jackson, Dibner Family Professor of History of Science and Technology, received a Hans Sauer Award for his book Spectrum of Belief: Joseph von Fraunhofer and the Craft of Precision Optics.

The Hans Sauer Foundation gives the award every two years to two people who have made significant contributions towards raising the awareness of inventors, innovators, inventions and innovations.

Dr. Kurt Becker, Associate Provost for Research and Technology Initiatives, who attended the award ceremony in Berlin said, “It is very fitting that the Hans Sauer Foundation, founded by the heirs of Germany’s most prolific inventor, Dr. Hans Sauer, who held over 400 patents, recognizes Myles Jackson for his insightful book on one of Germany’s most gifted inventors of the 19^th century, Joseph von Fraunhofer.”

Fraunhofer is considered by many to be a genius who revolutionized the business of precision lens making and precision optical instrumentation without the benefit of higher schooling or formal education.

The Hans Sauer Foundation has been active for more than 15 years in the non-profit support of science, research and inventions. The foundation supports responsible technical innovations that have ecological and social value. It also supports projects like Professor Jackson’s that illuminate the processes of innovation.