About me

My name is Mike Lockwood, and I'm a full-time optician. I have my own company, Lockwood Custom Optics, Inc., that I operate myself.

From 2000 to early 2009 I was a research engineer at the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. My engineering work is in the field of signal processing, specifically acoustic signal processing and beamforming algorithms.  I received a Masters degree in elecrical engineering from UIUC in 1999.

With my business picking up and research funding temporarily absent, I decided to make the transition to full-time optical work in May of 2009, and I very much enjoy being my own boss.

I enjoy telescope making, observing the wonders of the night sky, golf, photography (daytime and nighttime) woodworking, metalworking, and ballroom, latin and nightclub dancing.  I've been involved with the Dancing Illini at the University of Illinois.  I also enjoy building useful things for my house or others, improving my house, writing articles about optics and other amateur astronomers, riding roller coasters, outdoor activities, slalom waterskiing, wakeboarding, good beer, good friends, good audio systems, good music, good food, and most combinations of those things.

If you want to know more than that, you'll have to take the drastic step of meeting me in person, like they used to do in the olden days when people talked to each other instead of typing/texting to each other.

Did I mention I also like sarcasm?

Back to my home page.....