Juris Upatnieks: key obituary facts
Is Juris Upatnieks dead? Yes. Juris Upatnieks died on May 17, 2026, at age 90.
Cause of death: Juris Upatnieks's cause of death has not been publicly confirmed.
What was Juris Upatnieks known for?
He was known as Latvian-American physicist and inventor (born 1936), one of the inventors of the hologram.
More about Juris Upatnieks
Born: 7 May 1936.
Place of birth: Riga.
Gender: male.
Occupation: physicist, inventor, holographer.
Nationality: United States, Latvia.
Education: University of Michigan, University of Akron.
Employer: University of Michigan.
Awards: Grand Medal of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, Holley Medal, R. W. Wood Prize, Emmett N. Leith Medal, Fellow of the Optical Society.
Known for: Co-inventor of holography.
Juris Upatnieks, a Latvian–American physicist and inventor, died on May 17, 2026, at age 90.
Born in Riga, Latvia, on May 7, 1936, he was a pioneer in holography and is known as a co-inventor of the field. After fleeing Latvia with his parents at the close of World War II and spending time in Germany, he emigrated to the United States in 1951.
He studied electrical engineering at the University of Akron and later at the University of Michigan. In 1964, he demonstrated with Emmett Leith the first three-dimensional holograms in the United States and published technical papers with Leith from 1962 to 1964. He was nominated for the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physics alongside Leith but did not win.
Juris Upatnieks, 90, Latvian-American physicist and inventor.