News of SPIE Members

Laser pioneer Elias Snitzer, inventor of the glass laser, the fiber laser, and the fiber amplifier, died 21 May after a sudden illness at the age of 87. Snitzer's seminal contributions to photonics research over a span of 40 years helped pave the way for the development of the fiber optics technology on which the internet and other communications systems operate, and found applications in medical imaging technology as well.

SPIE Member Mike Mandina and Rick Plympton, leaders of SPIE Corporate Member Optimax Systems, have been awarded the U.S. Small Business Administration's 2012 New York State Small Business Person of the Year Award. Their expertise helped advance the company from a small business founded in 1991 to one of America's Fastest Growing Private Companies in 2011 in a survey by Inc. magazine

SPIE Member Omid Kokabee, an Iranian graduate student who has been imprisoned in Tehran for the past 15 months, was sentenced to 10 years on 13 May for allegedly conspiring with foreign countries against Iran.

SPIE Fellow Stephen Boppart has been awarded the 2012 Hans Sigrist Prize in recognition of his outstanding research in diagnostic laser medicine.

SPIE Senior Member Andrei Brunfeld, 62, senior scientist and manager of the optical division of Xyratex, Ltd., died 9 May following an illness.

SPIE member Joseph DeSimone of University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, has been elected to National Academy of Sciences. DeSimone has been highly honored for developing lithographic fabrication technologies and for achievements in nanomedicine, photolithography, chemical engineering, and entrepreneurship.

SPIE Fellow and Past President Brian Thompson has been named 2011 Engineer of the Year by the Rochester Engineering Society.

Guoguang Mu, one of the early pioneers of optics, applied optics, and optical instrumentation in China, died on 12 April at the age of 81.

SPIE members Aydogan Ozcan (University of California, Los Angeles) and Michelle Povinelli (University of Southern California) have been awarded Grainger Grants for their interdisciplinary photonics engineering projects.

SPIE Member C. Kumar Patel will be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for his invention of the carbon dioxide laser in the 1960s, now widely used in medical, industrial, and military applications.

SPIE Fellow Yongfeng Lu, Lott Professor of electrical engineering at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, was noted in a university publication for his research team's work toward developing several unique processes that use lasers to make precise carbon nanostructures.

SPIE Fellow Sandra Biedron, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Colorado State University, has been named to the Fact-Finding Committee for Particle Accelerator Science and Technology for the U.S. Department of Energy.

SPIE Member Benjamin Williams has been awarded the National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Award recognizing junior faculty through their research, education and integration of their organizations mission.

SPIE Senior Member Andrea Alù and his research group at the University of Texas in Austin say they are a step closer to creating a three-dimensional cloak that would render some objects invisible.

Several SPIE Fellows and members are among the 66 new National Academy of Engineering members elected for their contributions in engineering research, practice, and education.

H. John Caulfield, retired Chief Scientist at Alabama A&M University Research Institute and a past editor of the SPIE journal Optical Engineering, passed away after an illness on 31 January 2012.

Montana State University honored SPIE Fellow Joseph Shaw by naming him as one of the recipients of the 2012 Cox Family Awards for Creative Scholarship and Teaching for being an inspirational leader in the development and study of remote sensing systems.

SPIE Fellow Robert Breault was recently recognized for his excellence in the optical field. His work with Optics Valley -- a center for optical research and manufacturing -- creates opportunities for many scientists who look for assistance.

Friends and collegues of SPIE Fellow James Wyant gathered in Tucson for a celebration honoring the retiring college dean and major supporter of Arizona Wildcats basketball.

SPIE Member Alfredo Dubra Suarez and the Medical College of Wisconsin received a four-year grant to support research of diseases that affect the retina and optic nerves from Research to Prevent Blindness.

SPIE Senior Member Aydogan Ozcan has received much recognition recently for his lab's research in lensless computational microscopy. Last month, their microscopy platform was named the top innovation of 2011 by The Scientist magazine.

Norman Wilson Edmund, founder of Edmund Optics, has died, according to a company press release dated 17 January.

SPIE Fellow Alexander Balandin contributed research to a newly found graphene -- an atom-thick layer of carbon -- that is 60 percent more effective than normal graphene.

SPIE Fellow Raymond Kostuk is a principal contributor to a research team exploring a new way to increase the efficiency of photovoltaic panels that produce electricity from sunlight.

A hands-on laser camp co-founded by SPIE Senior Member Judith Donnelly (Three Rivers Community College) is helping to bridge the gap between high school students and their future opportunities in the optics world.

SPIE Corporate Member Edmund Optics recently announced its awards for 2011 recognizing outstanding undergraduate and graduate optics programs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) at non-profit college and universities.

SPIE members, authors and friends were among Nature Magazine's list of "scientists who mattered" in 2011. Their photonics-based contributions are part of what the magazine calls "the fascinating fabric of scientific research."

SPIE Member William Whelan is working towards a new diagnostic technology for prostate cancer by implanting optical fibers.

Work by SPIE Member Roger Zemp (Univ. of Alberta) aimed at noninvasive examination of brain and other tissue by using light and sound is helping advance the emerging field of photoacoustics, according to a recent article in The Scientist.