SPIE Awards nomination criteria

Preparing and submitting your SPIE Award nomination

Prepare to submit your nomination

Honor a colleague who has made outstanding contributions to optics and photonics by nominating them for an SPIE Award. You can also nominate yourself. Below you'll find the materials required to complete and submit your nomination for the Awards Committee's review.

A happy group of SPIE Members at the annual Awards banquet

Nominations are due 1 July 2023 and must include:

  • Citation: a brief and specific statement; the basis for the award nomination
  • Narrative: no more than one page

  • Related accomplishments:
    • Technical accomplishments (outstanding technical accomplishments in an educational, research, design, engineering, manufacturing, testing, or other capacity)
    • Service to the community
    • Impact to SPIE
    • Other efforts related to the citation
  • Letters of reference: a minimum of two (2) and a maximum of five (5) letters of reference from other than the nominator
    • Diversity of support is preferred. Not all letters of recommendation should come from the nominee's organization. Letters must be received within two weeks of the nomination deadline.
  • Curriculum vitae: should not exceed 20 pages

More details and information

Serving a diverse and inclusive community is a core value of SPIE. Nominations of historically marginalized groups are especially encouraged. The SPIE Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee provides these tips to avoid bias in your nominations. 

Nominations are eligible for a three-year period. 

When preparing your nominee's accomplishments, please consider including following:

  • Distinguished and outstanding contributions to optics (or related) education
  • Entrepreneurial or technical management contributions to the optics and photonics industry, government programs, or other organization's service to the community
  • Clear and outstanding contributions to the international optical community
  • Service to other societies in related fields
  • Participation in activities to raise visibility and support for optics and photonics within governments
  • Publication record, including journal and proceedings papers, books, trade journal articles, technical reports, patent disclosures, and high-level presentations
  • Voluntary work with local schools and science fairs
  • Educational history
  • Work experience
  • Awards
  • Honors
  • Patents

While publications, presentations, and patents serve as good documentation of technical accomplishments, there are often circumstances where the candidate's accomplishments are not directly available or easily presented due to classifications or industrial propriety. In this case, listings of the contributions with enough detail to justify their consideration by the committee will suffice.

Joseph W. Goodman Book Writing Award

The Joseph W. Goodman Book Writing Award is a biennial award funded by J. W. and H. M. Goodman. The award recognizes authorship of an outstanding book in the field of optics and photonics, published in the last six years, that has contributed significantly to research, teaching, or the optics and photonics industry. This award is co-sponsored by SPIE and Optica.

This award process is structured somewhat differently than other SPIE Awards in that:

  • The Award is presented in even-numbered years only.
  • The next nomination deadline will be 1 October 2023 with the award presented in 2024.
  • Nominations may be submitted via email or mail to either SPIE or Optica.

Nomination Process

Any member of the optics and photonics community may nominate a book meeting the eligibility requirements. Direct nominations from publishers are discouraged.

Nominations must include the following:

  • A full bibliographic citation for the nominated book, including full title, full name(s) of author(s), publisher, and date of publication
  • A 300- to 500-word narrative describing how the nominated book has "contributed significantly to research, to teaching, or to the optics and photonics industry." The description should attempt to describe why the book is exceptional within its scientific field and genre. Its overall impact within optics and photonics should also be described.
  • A short biographical note on the person making the nomination, including name, institutional affiliation, and job title

Nominations may be mailed or emailed to one of the following addresses:

Goodman Book Writing Award Nomination
SPIE
P.O. Box 10 Bellingham, WA 98225 USA
awards@spie.org

Goodman Book Writing Award Nomination
Optica
2010 Massachusetts Ave NW Washington, DC 20036-1023 USA
awards@optica.org