Susan Houde-Walter
American physicist
Susan Nicole Houde-Walter (born 20 August 1954) is both an academic and executive with technical background in optical physics and engineering. Her specialties include laser physics, optoelectronics, optical materials, and imaging science, with applications in national security. She has traveled extensively with the United States military and served on science and policy boards, including the Army Science Board, the Department of the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, the Intelligence Science and Technology Expert Group | National Academies, and the National Defense Industry Association board on Special Operations/Low Intensity Conflict.
Dr. Houde-Walter was elected to the Board of Directors and later to the presidential chain of Optica (formerly, OSA), serving as its president in 2005. The Pentagon selected her for the 71st Joint Civilian Orientation Conference (JCOC), held in the United States Central Command. She was awarded the Keeper of the Flame award in 2018 by the National Women's Hall of Fame.
Early life and education
Houde-Walter was born as Susan Nicole Houde on 20 August 1954 in New York City, to Millicent (née Svoboda), a homemaker, and Raymond Houde, M.D., a pioneer in the management of chronic pain at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Susan was raised as graphic artist, and graduated from Sarah Lawrence College with a B.A. in liberal arts in 1976. She subsequently studied undergraduate physics at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University, The Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on an un-matriculated basis while working in New York City and Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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