John Bass

Hello! I’m a computational optics researcher at the 3DIM Lab in the Wyant College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona. My research is primarily focused on computational wavefront manipulation.

In many fields such as optical communications, biological imaging, and projector/display design, laser beams must be steered and “shaped” very quickly to account for rapidly-changing optical system properties. However, many traditional “spatial light modulators” (SLMs) which can control these laser beams have key limitations, primarily to their speed or spatial resolution, which limit their effectiveness in dynamic systems. My primary research interest is to break such limitations by combining novel computational wavefront control algorithms with newly-released “high-speed” spatial light modulators, and to use such solutions to solve important problems in communications, imaging, and optics.

Outside of the University of Arizona, I have also worked with the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and Ball Aerospace on computational modelling and measurement processing for optical imaging and communication systems. While the work with Ball Aerospace remains unpublished, some of the research performed with NRL regarding neural network scintillometry eventually resulted in a journal publication, which is listed below.

If you have further interest in my research, you may view the selected publication list below for further details. I can be contacted directly at the address [email protected]. Thank you for visiting my website!

Publications

Journal Publications:

[1] John M. Bass, Austin M. Singh, Rita Mahon, and Mike S. Ferraro, “Estimating atmospheric Cn2 using deep convolutional neural networks,” Appl. Opt. 65, H86-H94 (2026)

[2] John M. Bass, Manuel Ballester, Susana M. Fernández, Aggelos K. Katsaggelos, Emilio Márquez, and Florian Willomitzer, “Angular spectrum approach to inverse synthesis for the characterization of optical and geometrical properties of semiconductor thin films,” Opt. Express 33, 29939-29956 (2025)

Invited Talks:

[1] John M. Bass, Manuel Ballester, and Florian Willomitzer, “Optimization-based semiconductor thin-film inspection,” Electronic Imaging (2026)

Conference Publications and Presentations:

[1] John M. Bass et al., “Efficient pointing, acquisition, and tracking without external feedback using opposing spiral scanning,” SPIE Defense + Security (2026)

[2] John M. Bass, Jiazhang Wang, Muralidhar Madabhushi Balaji, and Florian Willomitzer, “Four-phase holography for high-quality light field modulation with MEMS phase light modulators.,” Emerging Digital Micromirror Device-based Systems and Applications XVIII (2026)

[3] John M. Bass et al., “Exploiting Phase Light Modulators for Low-SWaP Real-time Wavefront Correction at High-Resolution,” Unconventional Imaging, Sensing, and Adaptive Optics (2025)

[4] John M. Bass, Manuel Ballester, Susana M. Fernández, Aggelos K. Katsaggelos, Emilio Márquez, and Florian Willomitzer, “Characterizing optical and geometrical properties of semiconductor thin films with a split-step angular spectrum approach to inverse synthesis.,” Photonic Instrumentation Engineering XII (2025)

[5] John M. Bass, Manuel Ballester, Susana M. Fernández, Aggelos K. Katsaggelos, Emilio Márquez, and Florian Willomitzer, “Increasing the Precision of Transmission Spectroscopy by Optimization of Thin Film Surface Shapes.,” Frontiers in Optics + Laser Science (2024)

[6] John M. Bass et al., “Towards Fast and High-Resolution Adaptive Optics using Phase Light Modulators.,” Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Optics-Photonics Design and Fabrication (2024)