UC Irvine Event to Honor Arnold and Mabel Beckman

Experts on laser technology will honor Orange County industrialist Arnold Beckman and his wife, Mabel, with a program of lectures today at the UC Irvine Nelson Research Auditorium.

The free event begins at 1:30 p.m. with a discussion of the history and future of laser technology by Arthur L. Schawlow, a Stanford University physics professor and 1981 Nobel Laureate. At 2:20 p.m., Emmett Leith, a University of Michigan professor of computer science and electrical engineering, will discuss holography. University of Michigan chemistry Prof. Peter Rentzepis will follow with a discussion of biochemical reactions with lasers.

Michael W. Berns, director of the Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic at UCI, will give an overview of lasers in medicine and biology at 4:05, and at 4:50, Edward J. Quilligan, UCI vice chancellor for health sciences, will speak about the Beckmans’ contributions.

Beckman, founder of Beckman Instruments Inc. of Fullerton, gave $3.5 million of the $7 million used to create the institute, which has been open a year.