SPIE Members win U.S. Early Career Awards

Six SPIE Members are among recipients of Presidential Early Career Awards announced this month by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).

"Science and technology have long been at the core of America's economic strength and global leadership," President Obama said in naming the winners. "I am confident that these individuals, who have shown such tremendous promise so early in their careers, will go on to make breakthroughs and discoveries that will continue to move our nation forward in the years ahead."

Among SPIE Members named were:

• Andrea Armani, University of Southern California; author of papers at SPIE Photonics West 2011 next January on research in ultrahigh-Q microcavity technology
• Michelle Povinelli, University of Southern California; author of papers at Photonics West 2011 on silicon nanowire and nanohole arrays and explorations of dark resonances in coupled microcavities, member of the Laser Resonators and Beam Control conference committee
• Juan Estrada, Fermi National Accelerator Lab, author of several papers in conferences at SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation
• Jerome Lynch, University of Michigan; author of more than 40 papers with SPIE including several on the program for SPIE Smart Structures/NDE, member of several Smart Structures/NDE conferences including Sensors and Smart Structures Technologies for Civil, Mechanical, and Aerospace Systems
• Willie Padilla, Boston College; author of several papers and member of conference committes for SPIE conferences in Europe and North America
• Ivan Smalyukh, University of Colorado at Boulder; short course instructor, conference chair and committee member, and author of nearly 30 papers with SPIE, including one on multimodal nonlinear optical polarizing microscopy at Photonics West 2011.

The Presidential Early Career Awards embody the high priority the Obama Administration places on producing outstanding scientists and engineers to advance the nation's goals, tackle grand challenges, and contribute to the American economy, noted the OSTP announcement. Ten federal departments and agencies annually nominate scientists and engineers whose early accomplishments show the greatest promise for assuring America's preeminence in science and engineering and contributing to the awarding agencies' missions.

Read the full press release from the White House.