Skip to main content

Just Rewards

Beginning in 2020, three new annual SPIE awards will honor iconic leaders of optics and photonics, as well as those following in their footsteps: the second female winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics, a pioneer of image science, and a timely recognition of proactive diversity initiatives in optics. In a rapidly-changing research landscape, these awards showcase two of SPIE’s key technical communities, and reflect the Society’s ongoing commitment to advocate for diversity and inclusion on a global level.


Named for one of three 1963 Nobel Prize for Physics winners – and the second woman to win that accolade after Marie Curie – the SPIE Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award in Photonics recognizes outstanding contributions to the field of photonics and the development of innovative, high impact technologies. Goeppert-Mayer, who won the Nobel alongside J. Hans D. Jensen for proposing the nuclear shell model of the atomic nucleus, also outlined the possibility of two-photon absorption by atoms in her 1930 doctoral thesis. Thirty years later, the invention of the laser proved her theory and, since then, two-photon absorption theory has been applied to imaging living cells, 3D optical data storage, 3D microfabrication, and treating cancer with photodynamic therapy.

The SPIE Harrison H. Barrett Award in Medical Imaging, named for a founder of the SPIE Medical Imaging conferences and the 2011 SPIE Gold Medal winner, honors outstanding accomplishments in medical imaging. While the main focus of his work has been medical imaging with an emphasis on nuclear medicine, Barrett is a pioneer in the field of image science, an emerging field which strives to provide unified theories, design principles, and evaluation methods for all forms of imaging.

The SPIE Gold Medal of the Society
And, in recognition of the historically all-too-often overlooked contributions by women and minorities in the scientific fields, the SPIE Diversity Outreach Award honors an individual who proactively supports diversity in the education, training, and participation of women and/or minorities in the optics and photonics arena.

From the Society’s Gold Medal to its Early Career Achievement Awards, SPIE has a long-standing history celebrating the ingenuity and critical contributions of professionals working in optics and photonics; as a Society, we pride ourselves on celebrating the many scientists who, every day, advance light-based sciences by conducting and implementing their research, and building the technologies and tools that improve our world. With these new awards, SPIE’s scope to highlight our community’s ventures takes three giant steps forward.


For more information and a complete listing all the SPIE awards, please visit our website.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ten Ways to Celebrate the first International Day of Light

The first International Day of Light (IDL) is less than a month away. A global initiative highlighting the importance of light and light-based technologies, communities around the world are planning events celebrating IDL on 16 May. First Place Winner of the 2017 SPIE IDL Photo Contest SPIE will participate in outreach events local to our community in Bellingham, Washington, attend the inauguration in Paris, France, and host an IDL reception for our conference attendees at SPIE Optical Systems Design in Frankfurt, Germany taking place May 14-17. SPIE is also supporting local events in 13 different communities from the US to India, Canada to South Africa, who were awarded SPIE IDL Micro Grants to create activities that highlight the critical role light plays in our daily lives. Do you need some ideas on how to show your appreciation of light on the 16th? Here is our top ten list of ways you can celebrate IDL 2018: 1. Throw a Celebration:  Light up your party with light an

#FacesofPhotonics: NASA Intern Elaine Stewart

MIRROR, MIRROR: Elaine with the JWST at Goddard Space  Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland Meet Elaine Stewart: chemical engineering student, world-traveler, intern at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, and this week's SPIE Face of Photonics. Elaine is fascinated by space exploration and how optics impacts our ability to "study distant stars that have never been seen before." Her research has taken her around the world -- from Bochum, Germany, where she studied material science and engineering at Ruhr-Universität, to Houston, Texas, to work on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) while it was under cryogenic vacuum chamber testing, to Melbourne, Australia, where she studied biochemical and product engineering at the University of Melbourne in 2017. And, when she's not busy traversing the globe, she is focusing on graduating from the University of Delaware in 2019 with a Bachelor's in Chemical Engineering. Elaine makes a point of remaining an active

Taking a Deep Dive into the World of Biophotonics

Gavrielle presents her research in Ven SPIE Student Member Gavrielle Untracht is pursuing her PhD at The University of Western Australia. She had the chance to participate in the 9th International Graduate Summer School in Biophotonics this past June on the island of Ven between Sweden and Denmark. At the school, sponsored by SPIE, invited experts from around the globe gave extended presentations on topics like tissue optics, strategies for cancer treatment using lasers, and entrepreneurship in photonics. Attendees also had the opportunity to present their current research projects, results, or ideas. Gavrielle shares her experiences of the summer school with this community in the following guest blog post. I recently returned from a week of great discussions and beautiful weather at the 9th Biophotonics Summer School on the Isle of Ven, Sweden. This experience, made possible (in part) by SPIE, was an invaluable opportunity for networking and a deep dive into the world of bi