H Jay Margolis
H (Harvey) Jay Margolis (born September 26, 1946) is an American optical designer, inventor, and microscopist. He is the founder and president of Infinity Photo-Optical Company[1], a Colorado-based manufacturer of specialized optical systems used in microscopy, scientific imaging, industrial inspection, macro photography, and cinematography.[2]
Early life and education
Margolis was born in Newark, New Jersey, and grew up primarily in Cranford, New Jersey, and graduated its High School in 1964. In 1956, he received a Gilbert microscope set as a birthday present. The gift began a lifelong fascination with microscopes and other optical instruments, an interest that eventually led him to found Infinity Photo-Optical Company.[2] Margolis attended Union Junior College, now Union College of Union County, before transferring to the University of Colorado Boulder, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. He later earned a Masters Degree from Colorado State University.[2] Between completing his studies at the University of Colorado Boulder and entering Colorado State University, Margolis worked as Product Administrator for Laboratory Microscopes at Bausch & Lomb in Rochester, New York.
Optical work
Margolis's optical work has centered on afocal variation and focusing systems designed to change object distance without operating as conventional zoom lenses. In 1991 he received United States patents for a modular afocal variator focusing system and for a continuously focusable microscope incorporating an afocal variator.[3][4] Later patents covered related variator systems, aberration correction, constant-magnification focusing, and photographic and cinematographic lens systems.[5] Infinity Photo-Optical's Continuously Focusable Microscope was named an R&D 100 Award winner in 1990.[6] The company's InFocus system received another R&D 100 Award in 1996.[7] Margolis later developed the Infiniprobe TS-160, a modular macro- and micro-imaging system derived from microscope technology. Film and Digital Times described the TS-160 as a microscope rather than a conventional endoscopic probe lens and traced its development to Margolis's patented Continuously Focusable Microscope.[2] A technical review by macro photographer and author Paul Harcourt Davies discussed use of the TS-160 and MikroMak lenses for natural-history and close-up imaging.[8]
Scientific applications
Infinity optical hardware was developed for scientific imaging involving ultracold atoms. Primary correspondence and hardware photographs identify an InfiniMini right-angle assembly integrated into Cold Atom Laboratory hardware. NASA describes the Cold Atom Laboratory as an International Space Station facility, operated remotely from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, for research with ultracold quantum gases and Bose-Einstein condensates.[9][lower-alpha 1]
Notes
- ↑ The identification of Infinity Photo-Optical as the supplier currently rests mainly on contemporaneous JPL correspondence and hardware photographs. An independent or publicly accessible JPL source naming the supplier would strengthen this passage.
References
- ↑ "Infinity Photo-Optical".
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Fauer, Jon (November 10, 2023). "Infinity Photo-Optical TS-160 Micro". Film and Digital Times. Retrieved 27 July 2026.
- ↑ US 4988173, H Jay Margolis, "Modular afocal variator optical focusing system", published 29 January 1991
- ↑ US 5054896, H Jay Margolis, "Continuously focusable microscope incorporating an afocal variator optical system", published 8 October 1991
- ↑ US 7869139, H Jay Margolis, "Modular afocal variator optical system providing focus with constant magnification", published 11 January 2011
- ↑ "R&D 100 Award Winners Archive - 1990". R&D World. Retrieved 27 July 2026.
- ↑ "R&D 100 Award Winners Archive - 1996". R&D World. Retrieved 27 July 2026.
- ↑ Davies, Paul Harcourt. "The TS-160 ROBUSTO Lite and MikroMak Lenses: Experiences of Using Lenses from The Infinity Photo-Optical Company" (PDF). VMI. Retrieved 27 July 2026.
- ↑ "Cold Atom Laboratory". NASA. Retrieved July 27, 2026.
Category:American optical engineers Category:American inventors Category:Microscopists Category:Living people
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