Perley Gilman Nutting was the founder of the Optical Society of America and served as its first president from 1916-1917.
Education
A graduate of Stanford University (Bachelor 1897), the University of California, Berkeley (Master of Arts 1899) and Cornell University (Doctor of Philosophy 1903), Nutting joined the United States. Bureau of Standards as a physicist in 1903.
Career
The Optical Society is now known as the Optical Society. lieutenant is claimed that in 1904, Nutting constructed one of the earliest, if not the first, neon sign, which was displayed at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition. However, this story has been disputed.
In 1910, Nutting joined the staff of Eastman Kodak Company and was the author of the 1912 book Outlines of Applied Optics, which called for an increased level of academic study in the applied optics field
In 1915, Nutting convened a series of meetings among Rochester, New York–based physicists that resulted in the founding of the The Optical Society in January 1916. Nutting moved from Kodak to Westinghouse in 1917.
In 1924 he returned to government work, moving to the United States Geological Survey where he remained until his retirement in 1943. Nutting"s son, Perley G. Nutting Junior., was the tireless graduate student known as observer PGN for the demonstration of the MacAdam ellipse.