BELLINGHAM, Washington, USA (PRWEB) March 20, 2014 -- Winners of prestigious annual awards have been announced by the Awards Committee of SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics. The awards recognize outstanding individual and team technical accomplishments and meritorious service to the Society. Award winners for 2014 are:
Gold Medal of the Society: James Harrington, Rutgers University, for seminal contributions to the field of specialty fiber optics and his pioneering work in the development of infrared transmissive fiber optics and their applications in laser power delivery, chemical and thermal sensing, and spectroscopy. The Gold Medal is the highest honor bestowed by SPIE.
Britton Chance Biomedical Optics Award: Brian Wilson, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, for many contributions to biomedical optics over the past 30 years, including pioneering work in photodynamic therapy. The award recognizes outstanding contributions to biomedical optics through the development of innovative, high-impact technologies, and particularly honors pioneering contributions to optical methods and devices with significant promise to accelerate or that already have facilitated advances in biology or medicine.
Biophotonics Technology Innovator Award: Naomi Halas, Rice University, for her invention of biocompatible nanoparticles and their innovative applications in imaging, diagnostics, and photothermal cancer therapy. The award recognizes extraordinary achievements in biophotonics technology development that show strong promise or potential impact in biology, medicine, and biomedical optics.
A.E. Conrady Award: Matthew Rimmer, retired, Optical Research Associates, for contributions to optical design algorithm development as exemplified by his work in the area of wavefront differential tolerancing. The award recognizes exceptional contributions in design, construction, and testing of optical systems and instrumentation, and development of new equipment, techniques, and applications for designing, testing, analyzing, or evaluating optical systems, components, and theories.
Harold E. Edgerton Award: Jeff Squier, Colorado School of Mines, for seminal contributions to femtosecond lasers and amplifiers, laser filamentation, ultrafast spectroscopy, femtosecond micromachining, ophthalmic procedures with ultrafast lasers, and high-speed nonlinear optical microscopy. The award recognizes outstanding contributions to optical or photonic techniques in the application and understanding of high-speed physical phenomena.
Dennis Gabor Award: Pramod Rastogi, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, for groundbreaking research in the development of high-resolution and multi-component parametric phase formulation methods for the simultaneous estimation of multiple phases and their derivatives from holographic interference patterns. The award recognizes outstanding accomplishments in diffractive wavefront technologies, especially those which further the development of holography and metrology applications.
George W. Goddard Award: James Bock, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, for development of sensitive bolometer arrays for studies of distant, dusty galaxies and the cosmic microwave background radiation, leading to their use on the Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE) on the Herschel Space Telescope and the High Frequency Instrument (HFI) on the Planck Surveyor spacecraft. The award recognizes exceptional achievement in optical or photonic instrumentation for aerospace, atmospheric science, or astronomy, and is for the invention and development of a new technique, photonic instrumentation, instrument, or system.
G.G. Stokes Award: J. Scott Tyo, University of Arizona, for contributions to the theory of polarimeter optimization, the characterization and calibration of polarimeters, and to the understanding of microgrid polarimeter data processing. The award recognizes exceptional contribution to the field of optical polarization.
Chandra S. Vikram Award in Optical Metrology: Rajpal Sirohi, Tezpur University, for important contributions to applied optics and his any international activities to spread his knowledge. The award recognizes exceptional contribution to the field of optical metrology.
Frits Zernike Award in Microlithography: Mordechai Rothschild, Lincoln Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for his leadership in programs that have enabled the advancement of nanolithography in the deep-UV (248nm and 193nm) and the vacuum-UV (157nm and 121nm). The award recognizes outstanding accomplishments in microlithographic technology, especially those furthering the development of semiconductor lithographic imaging solutions.
SPIE Early Career Achievement Award: Jeremy Munday, University of Maryland, College Park, for innovative experimental and theoretical work on photonic engineering for solar energy devices and Casimir forces. The award is for significant and innovative technical contributions to any of the engineering or scientific fields of interests to SPIE.
SPIE Educator Award: Cristina Solano, Centro de Investigaciones en Óptica, for outstanding contributions in optics education and outreach, and for valuable outreach activities for extending the knowledge of science both in general and in optics in particular for children and teenagers. The award recognizes outstanding contributions to optics education by an SPIE instructor or an educator in the field.
SPIE Technology Achievement Award: Rajendra Singh, Clemson University, for efforts in the elucidation and exploitation of photonic effects in rapid thermal processing for semiconductor manufacturing, and his technical leadership of photovoltaic technology. The award recognizes outstanding technical accomplishment in optics, electro-optics, photonic engineering, or imaging, with significant contributions to the advancement of one or more of these areas.
About SPIE
SPIE is the international society for optics and photonics, a not-for-profit organization founded in 1955 to advance light-based technologies. The Society serves nearly 256,000 constituents from approximately 155 countries, offering conferences, continuing education, books, journals, and a digital library in support of interdisciplinary information exchange, professional networking, and patent precedent. SPIE provided $3.2 million in support of education and outreach programs in 2013.
Amy Nelson, Public Relations Manager, SPIE, +1 (360) 685-5478, [email protected]
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