Amanda Meier, PhD, brings lab and industry experience to the college.
Front Range Community College has hired Amanda Meier, PhD, as the new faculty member for its optics technology program. Dr. Meier’s expertise in laser and optical design, diagnostics and testing give her an in-depth understanding of the training needs for laboratory technicians—the focus of FRCC’s program.
Meier earned her Ph.D. in Applied Physics from the Colorado School of Mines. She has extensive laboratory experience at Mines, as well as with several industry-leading firms. Meier worked as principal optical engineer at Spectra-Physics in Santa Clara, California. She was also a staff scientist for Areté Associates in Longmont, Colorado.
Her work with local and national firms will help deepen FRCC’s relationships with critical players in the optics industry—and will help support the growth of this relatively new program.
Meier holds a patent—along with co-inventor Charles Durfee—for their “interferometer for spatial chirp characterization.” It’s a device that overlaps two (or more) waves to create an interference pattern. Interferometers are used to accurately measure many properties in the optics world such as distance and wavelength—or deviations from an optical surface. Meier’s interferometer measures spatial chirp, which is an optical distortion in ultrafast optics.
Meier is also active in several professional organizations and received the Women in Optics Planner Award for 2019-2020 from the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE).
Fall classes in FRCC’s optics technology program start September 15.
For information—or to enroll—call (303) 678- 3649 or apply online.
About Front Range Community College
FRCC offers more than 100 degree and certificate programs from locations in Boulder County, Larimer County, Westminster, Brighton, and online. FRCC is a member of the Colorado Community College System.
About the Colorado Community College System
The Colorado Community College System (CCCS) is the state’s largest system of higher education, serving 138,000 students annually at 13 colleges and 39 locations across Colorado. Our open access mission ensures all Coloradans who aspire to enrich their lives have access to quality higher education opportunities.
