Tobias' thesis research focused on applying and extending Nodal Aberration Theory, which describes aberration fields of misaligned optical systems, originally developed in the 1970s by Kevin Thompson. A recent contribution has been the development of a coordinate system independent formulation of the method for locating aberration field centers. This new ‘real ray’ based approach enables a working optical designer using a commercial optical design package to directly predict aberration field nodal behavior as a function of misalignment. The previous methods, based on an extended paraxial treatment by Buchroeder, were limited to a specific type of tilt and decenter model whereas a designer typically has access to, and uses, up to 5 different methods for managing tilt and decenter modeling.

The equivalence of both approaches to calculate the aberration field center locations has been demonstrated and is shown in a paper recently submitted to JOSA A. The calculation of the aberration field centers has been implemented in CODE V where it is combined with Full Field Displays and with macros developed to compute the characteristic quantities in Nodal Aberration Theory. The results were successfully validated based on real raytracing and subsequent fit to Zernike polynomials; a completely independent methodology for verification purposes.

Most recently Tobias has been applying Nodal Aberration Theory to fully describe alignment induced aberrations on a surface-by-surface basis for a wide class of astronomical telescopes. Not only total aberration at the image plane, but also effects originating from each surface can be analyzed separately. Because nodal location is linear with perturbation, the resulting insights from applying these tools enables a fundamental understanding of misalignment effects, which can provide valuable insight in the process of developing an alignment plan. Tobias has also recently undertaken research into aberations of rotationally non-symmetric optical systems which has application in many domains including EUV lithography.

Update 2020

From mid-2014 to present Tobias has been working for Synopsys. He started out his work within Synopsys as R&D Engineer and has been working predominantly on LucidShape and LightTools products. Starting in Mid 2017 Tobias took on the role as product manager for all LucidShape products, including LucidShape, LucidDrive, and LucidShape CAA. These software products are primarily focused on automotive lighting applications but can also be used in the wider context of general illumination.

From 2010 to 2012, Tobias worked for Osram Opto Semiconductors as an applications engineer doing non-imaging optics development. His responsibility included the development of new lens designs for LEDs, as well as optics for exterior automotive lighting applications. From 2012 to mid-2014 has been working for North American Lighting doing headlamp development with focus on forward lighting functions. The primary focus of his work has been on facetted optics design and projection optics for low/high beam applications, doing projects for a variety of automotive OEMs.

Update 2010 - Postscript

At the 2010 Optical Fabrication and Testing (OFT) conference, co-located this year with the International Optical Design Conference (IODC), Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Tobias received the second place best paper award for his work on " Utilizing Insights of Nodal Aberration Theory in Optical Testing/Alignment."

Update 2010

I am presently a Graduate Research Assistant, PhD Candidate Optics, CREOL - The College of Optics and Photonics at the University of Central Florida. My research interests have been focused on the design and analysis of optical systems without rotational symmetry. This includes systems that are intentionally designed without symmetry, or misaligned optical systems that exhibit rotational symmetry in their nominal state. Having a mathematical framework to understand the effects of misalignment perturbations, concepts have been developed that can dramatically reduce assembly tolerances.

Most recently I had the opportunity to work with scientists from the LSST Corporation to develop an alignment plan for the Large-Synoptic-Survey-Telescope. While my research has been mainly focused on astronomical telescopes, numerous other applications exist, e.g. optical testing applications, microlithography, tolerancing etc.