14 Facts About Stephen Benton

Stephen Anthony Benton was the inventor of the rainbow hologram and a pioneer in medical imaging and fine arts holography.

Stephen Benton was born in San Francisco in 1941 and grew up in Santa Barbara, California.

Stephen Benton graduated from Santa Barbara High School in 1959.

Stephen Benton first became interested in optics at 11 when he wore a pair of 3-D glasses to view the Vincent Price movie House of Wax.

Stephen Benton received his undergraduate degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in electrical engineering and worked with Professor Harold "Doc" Edgerton, a pioneer in stroboscopy.

Stephen Benton remained at Harvard University as an assistant professor of applied optics until 1973.

From 1980 to 1983, Stephen Benton returned to MIT as a visiting scientist in the Laser Research Center.

In 1984, Stephen Benton joined the MIT faculty as a founding member of the MIT Media Lab, an interdisciplinary research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology devoted to projects at the convergence of technology, multimedia, sciences, art and design.

Stephen Benton remained the director of CAVS until his death in 2003.

In 1968, Stephen Benton began working on the rainbow hologram or the Stephen Benton hologram, at Polaroid Corporation.

Dr Stephen Benton first presented his invention to the optical society in California in 1968.

In 1988, Dr Stephen Benton patented methods and devices for projecting and recording holographic stereograms.

Not only was Stephen Benton an accomplished scientist, but an artist.

Stephen Benton's own works in holography have been displayed at the Museum of Holography on Mercer Street in Manhattan, where he was a curator.