Dr. Santasri R. Bose-Pillai

Research Associate Professor

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Santasri Bose-Pillai received her PhD in Electrical Engineering with a focus in Optics in 2008 and her M.S. in Electrical Engineering in 2005, both from New Mexico State University. She received her B.S.E.E with honors from Jadavpur University, India in 2000. Currently she is a Research Associate Professor at AFIT's Center for Directed Energy within the Engineering Physics department. Dr. Bose-Pillai's research interests include beam propagation and imaging through atmospheric turbulence; turbulence characterization, compensation and mitigation; aerosol effects; and optical coherence and statistical optics. She is a senior member of SPIE and Optica (formerly OSA). Prior to joining AFIT, Dr. Bose-Pillai worked as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics and Optical Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.

Education

PhD, Electrical Engineering, New Mexico State University, 2008       

MS, Electrical Engineering, New Mexico State University, 2005

BE (Honors),  Electrical Engineering, Jadavpur University (India), 2000

Awards

             2019    Elected as Senior Member of Optica.

2017    Elected as Senior Member of SPIE, the International Society for Optics and Photonics.

2008    Inducted into Alpha Chi Honor Society for being among top 10% of the graduate students at New Mexico State University.

2000    Jadavpur University Alumni Association Award for academic excellence during undergraduate studies.

Awards received by advisees:

2025 Advisor to Louis F. Polk award recipient Lt. Julianna Sommer for making significant contribution through research towards strengthening the nation’s industrial defense base; also recipient of SPIE’s best light-based thesis award

2020 Co-advisor to Dean’s award for best thesis in the Engineering Physics Department recipient Lt. Alexander Boeckenstedt

2019 Advisor to best student presentation award at Dayton Engineering and Sciences Symposium recipient, Benjamin Wilson

Publications

Peer Reviewed Journal Publications

1. Jack E. McCrae, Santasri R. Bose-Pillai, Benjamin C. Wilson, and Steven T. Fiorino, “Differential tilts between square apertures,” Applied Optics, vol.64, no.18, E76-E81, Apr. 2025, doi: 10.1364/AO.557165.
2. Milo W. Hyde, Benjamin C. Wilson, and Santasri R. Bose-Pillai, “Twisted vortex Gaussian Schell-model beams, generalized ABCD systems, and multidimensional Hermite polynomials,” J. Opt. Soc. Am. A, vol.41, no.7, 1319-1328, Jul 2024, doi: 10.1364/ JOSAA.525568.
3. Benjamin C. Wilson, Santasri R. Bose-Pillai, Jack E. McCrae, Steven T. Fiorino, Robert P. Freeman, and Laura R. Slabaugh, “Investigating turbulence distribution in the lower atmosphere using time-lapse imagery from a camera bank,” Applied Optics, vol.63, no.16, E64-E77, Apr. 2024, doi: 10.1364/AO.521082.
4. Steven Fiorino, Yogendra Raut, Jaclyn Schmidt, Laura Slabaugh, Blaine Fourman, Jack McCrae, Benjamin Wilson, and Santasri Bose-Pillai, “Quantification of surface layer turbulence using sensible heat values from energy balance versus aerodynamic methods,” Applied Optics, vol.63, no.16, E78-E85, Apr. 2024, doi: 10.1364/AO.521086.
5. Mark F. Spencer, Milo W. Hyde, Santasri R. Bose-Pillai, and Michael A. Marciniak, “Active-illumination extension to the Priest and Meier pBRDF,” Opt. Express, vol.31, no.22, 37105-37127, Oct 2023, doi:10.1364/OE.503048.
6. Russell Hardie, Michael Rucci, Santasri Bose-Pillai, Richard Van Hook, Barry Karch, “Modeling and simulation of multispectral imaging through anisoplanatic atmospheric optical turbulence,” Optical Engineering, vol. 61, no. 9, 093102, Sep 2022, doi:10.1117/1.OE.61.9.093102.
7. Alexander Boeckenstedt, Jack McCrae, Santasri Bose-Pillai, Benjamin Wilson and Steven Fiorino, “Improving on Atmospheric Turbulence Profiles Derived from Dual Beacon Hartmann Turbulence Sensor Measurements,” Applied Sciences, vol. 12, no. 12, 5822, Jun 2022, doi:10.3390/app12125822.
8. Steven Fiorino, Santasri Bose-Pillai and Kevin Keefer, “Re-visiting acoustic sounding to advance the measurement of optical turbulence,” Applied Sciences, vol. 11, no. 16, 7658, Aug 2021, doi:10.3390/app 11167658.
9. Benjamin Wilson, Santasri Bose-Pillai, Jack McCrae, Kevin Keefer and Steven Fiorino, “Estimating turbulence distribution over a heterogeneous path using time-lapse imagery from dual cameras,” Applied Sciences, vol. 11, no. 13, 6221, Jul 2021, doi:10.3390/app11136221.
10. Russell C. Hardie, Michael A. Rucci, Santasri Bose-Pillai and Richard Van Hook, “Application of tilt correlation statistics to anisoplanatic optical turbulence modeling and mitigation,” Applied Optics, vol. 60, no. 25, G181, Jul 2021, doi: 10.1364/ao.418458.
11. Steven T. Fiorino, Santasri R. Bose-Pillai, Jaclyn E. Schmidt, Brannon J. Elmore, Kevin J. Keefer, “Implications of 4D weather cubes for improved cloud free line of sight assessments of free space optical communications link performance,” Optical Engineering, vol. 59, no. 8, 081808 (18 pp.), Aug 2020, doi: 10.1117/1.OE.59.8.081808.
12. Jack E. McCrae, Santasri R. Bose-Pillai, Steven T. Fiorino, Aaron Archibald, Joel Meoak, Brannon J. Elmore, Thomas Kesler, and Christopher A. Rice, “Measurements of Optical Turbulence over 149 km Path,” Optical Engineering, vol. 59, no. 8, 0818068 (13 pp.), Jun 2020, doi: 10.1117/1.OE.59.8.081806.
13. Santasri R. Bose-Pillai, Jack E. McCrae, Christopher A. Rice, Ryan A. Wood, Connor E. Murphy, and Steven T. Fiorino, “Estimation of atmospheric turbulence using differential motion of extended features in time-lapse imagery”, Optical Engineering, vol. 57, no. 10, 104108 (14 pp.), Oct 2018, doi: 10.1117/1.OE.57.10.104108.
14. Milo W. Hyde, Santasri R. Bose-Pillai, and Olga Korotkova, “Monte Carlo simulations of three-dimensional electromagnetic Gaussian Schell-model sources,” Optics Express, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 2303-2313, Feb 2018, doi: 10.1364/OE.26.002303.  
15. Milo W. Hyde, Santasri R. Bose-Pillai, and Ryan A. Wood, “Synthesis of non-uniformly correlated partially coherent sources using a deformable mirror,” Applied Physics Letters, vol. 111, no. 10, 101106 (5 pp.), Sep 2017, doi: 10.1063/1.4994669.
16. Milo W. Hyde IV, Santasri R. Bose-Pillai, Xifeng Xiao, and David G. Voelz, “Physical realization of Schell-model sources using a fast steering mirror,” Microwave and Optical Technology Letters, vol. 59, no. 11, pp. 2731-2735, Nov 2017, doi: 10.1002/mop.30818.
17. Milo W. Hyde IV, and Santasri R. Bose-Pillai, “Fresnel spatial filtering of quasi-homogenous sources for wave optics simulations,” Optical Engineering, vol. 56, no. 8, 083107 (7 pp.), Aug 2017, doi: 10.1117/1.OE.56.8.083107.
18. Milo W. Hyde IV, and Santasri R. Bose-Pillai, “Partially coherent sources with circular coherence: comment,” Optics Letters, vol. 42, no. 16, pp. 3084-3084, Aug 2017, doi: 10.1364/OL.42.003084.
19. Jack E. McCrae, Santasri R. Bose-Pillai, and Steven T. Fiorino, “Estimation of turbulence from time-lapse imagery,” Optical Engineering, vol. 56, no. 7, 071504 (9 pp.), Jul 2017, doi: 10.1117/1.OE.56.7.071504.
20. Russell C. Hardie, Jonathan D. Power, Daniel A. LeMaster, Douglas R. Droege, Szymon Gladysz, and Santasri Bose-Pillai, “Simulation of anisoplanatic imaging through optical turbulence using numerical wave propagation with new validation analysis,” Optical Engineering, vol. 56, no. 7, 071502 (9 pp.), Jul 2017, doi: 10.1117/1.OE.56.7.071502.
21. Noah R. Van Zandt, Milo W. Hyde IV, Santasri R. Bose-Pillai, David G. Voelz, Xifeng Xiao, and Steven T. Fiorino, “Synthesizing time-evolving partially-coherent Schell-model sources,” Optics Communications, vol. 387, pp. 377-384, Mar 2017, doi: 10.1016/j.optcom.2016.10.055.
22. Xifeng Xiao, David G. Voelz, Santasri R. Bose-Pillai, and Milo W. Hyde, “Modeling random screens for predefined electromagnetic Gaussian–Schell model sources,” Optics Express, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 3656-3665, Feb 2017, doi: 10.1364/OE.25.003656.  
23. Milo W. Hyde IV, Santasri Bose-Pillai, Xifeng Xiao, and David G. Voelz, “A fast and efficient method for producing partially coherent sources,” Journal of Optics, vol. 19, no. 2, 025601 (6 pp.), Feb 2017, doi:10.1088/2040-8986/19/2/025601.
24. Milo W. Hyde, Santasri Bose-Pillai, David G. Voelz, and Xifeng Xiao, “Generation of Vector Partially Coherent Optical Sources Using Phase-Only Spatial Light Modulators,” Phys. Rev. Applied, vol. 6, no. 6, 064030 (12 pp.), Dec 2016, doi: 10.1103/PhysRevApplied.6.064030.
25. Santasri Basu, Jack E. McCrae, Steven T. Fiorino, and Jared Przelomski, “Estimation of temporal variations in path-averaged atmospheric refractive index gradient from time-lapse imagery,” Optical Engineering, vol. 55, no. 9, 090503 (4 pp.), Sep 2016, doi: 10.1117/1.OE.55.9.090503.
26. Milo W. Hyde IV, and Santasri Basu, “Two spatial light modulator system for laboratory simulation of random beam propagation in random media: comment,” Applied Optics, vol. 55, no. 21, pp. 5596-5597, Jul 2016, doi: 10.1364/ AO.55.005596. 
27. Milo W. Hyde IV, Santasri Basu, David G. Voelz, and Xifeng Xiao, “Generating partially coherent Schell-model sources using a modified phase screen approach,” Optical Engineering, vol. 54, no. 12, 120501 (5 pp.), Dec 2015, doi: 10.1117/1.OE.54.12.120501.
28. Milo W. Hyde IV, Santasri Basu, David G. Voelz, and Xifeng Xiao, “Experimentally generating any desired partially-coherent Schell-model source using phase-only control,” Journal of Applied Physics, vol. 118, no. 9, 093102 (10 pp.), Sep 2015, doi: 10.1063/1.4929811.
29. Milo W. Hyde IV, Santasri Basu, Xifeng Xiao, and David G. Voelz, “Producing any desired far-field mean irradiance pattern using a partially-coherent Schell-model source,” Journal of Optics, vol. 17, no. 5, 055607 (6 pp.), May 2015, doi: 10.1088/2040-8978/17/5/055607.
30. Milo W. Hyde IV, Santasri Basu, and Jason D. Schmidt, “Two-dimensional simulation of optical wave propagation through atmospheric turbulence,” Optics Letters, vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 233-236, Jan 2015, doi: 10.1364/OL.40.000233.
31. Santasri Basu, Milo W. Hyde IV, Xifeng Xiao, David G. Voelz, and Olga Korotkova, “Computational approaches for generating electromagnetic Gaussian Schell-model sources,” Optics Express, vol. 22, no. 26, pp. 31691-31707, Dec 2014, doi: 10.1364/OE.22.031691. 
32. Milo W. Hyde IV, Santasri Basu, Mark F. Spencer, Salvatore J. Cusumano, and Steven T. Fiorino, “Physical optics solution for the scattering of a partially-coherent wave from a statistically rough material surface,” Optics Express, vol. 21, no. 6, pp. 6807-6825, Mar 2013, doi: 10.1364/OE.21.006807. 
33. Santasri Basu, Milo W. Hyde IV, Salvatore J. Cusumano, Michael A. Marciniak, and Steven T. Fiorino, “Examining the validity of using a Gaussian Schell-model source to model the scattering of a fully coherent Gaussian beam from a rough impedance surface,” Optical Engineering, vol. 52, no. 3, 038001 (9 pp.), Mar 2013, doi: 10.1117/1.OE.52.3.038001.
34. Noah R. Van Zandt, Salvatore J. Cusumano, Richard J. Bartell, Santasri Basu, Jack E. McCrae, and Steven T. Fiorino, “Comparison of coherent and incoherent laser beam combination for tactical engagements,” Optical Engineering, vol. 51, no. 10, 104301 (19 pp.), Oct 2012, doi: 10.1117/1.OE.51.10.104301. 
35. Santasri Basu, David Voelz, and Deva K. Borah, “Fade statistics of a ground-to-satellite optical link in the presence of lead-ahead and aperture mismatch,” Applied Optics, vol. 48, no. 7, pp. 1274-1287, Mar 2009, doi: 10.1364/ AO.48.001274. 
36. Santasri Basu and David Voelz, “Tracking in a ground-to-satellite optical link: effects due to lead-ahead and aperture mismatch, including temporal tracking response,” JOSA A, vol. 25, no. 7, pp. 1594-1608, Jul 2008, doi: 10.1364/ JOSAA.25.001594.
37. Deva K. Borah, David Voelz, and Santasri Basu, “Maximum-likelihood estimation of a laser system pointing parameters by use of return photon counts,” Applied Optics, vol. 45, no. 11, pp. 2504-2509, Apr 2006, doi: 10.1364/ AO.45.002504.