Annual innovation competition sponsored by SPIE and Photonics Media will mark 10th year
 Prism Awards for Photonics Innovation provide high-visibility recognition in the photonics industry. Winners of the 2018 awards will be announced 31 January during SPIE Photonics West; above, a winning team from 2017. Credit: Joey Cobbs Photography |
BELLINGHAM, Washington, and PITTSFIELD, Massachusetts, USA — Disruptive technology for assessing chemical composition in real time, a LiDAR system for self-driving vehicles, and a smartphone-add-on sensor for noncontact blood pressure and other healthcare tests are among the impressive finalists for the prestigious 2018 Prism Awards for Photonics Innovation competition.
Sponsored annually by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, and Photonics Media to honor groundbreaking technology and product inventions within the high-impact industry of optics and photonics, the Prism Awards are celebrating 10 years of bringing recognition to life-changing products in 2018.
"Photonics Media has been a proud Prism Awards sponsor, with SPIE, since the beginning, and as we commemorate the Awards' 10th year, we celebrate the continued growth in optics and photonics," said Thomas Laurin, president and CEO of Laurin Publishing. "This year's nominees take the industry once again to new heights of technical achievement, and bring the promise of continued expansion of these technologies into new industries and applications. We applaud the nominees and wish them all continued success."
"Ten years on, the Prism Awards are casting an even wider light on the photonics industry. Each year, categories for the awards are driven by the innovations entered, providing direct insight into thriving and emerging ‘hot' markets. Significantly, this year there are ten categories rather than the usual nine. Biomedical entries are featured in two categories, Life Science Instrumentation and Medical Diagnostics and Therapeutics, illustrating the vitality of that field. Also new this year are categories for inventions in Environmental Monitoring and for Illumination and Light Sources — very timely as the world continues to work toward more sustainable energy sources and devices," said SPIE CEO Eugene Arthurs.
Winners will be announced on 31 January at a gala banquet during SPIE Photonics West (www.spie.org/PW) in San Francisco, California. With high-level presenters and an audience including the who's who of the photonics industry, the awards boost visibility, recognition, and brand equity for companies bringing innovative products to the market.
Finalist products and descriptions are detailed at www.photonicsprismaward.com. The field includes:
Detectors and Sensors
Environmental Monitoring
Illumination and Light Sources
Imaging and Cameras
Lasers
Life Science Instrumentation
Material Processing and Additive Manufacturing
Medical Diagnostics and Therapeutics
Optics and Optomechanical Components
Test and Measurement
Among presenters of the 2018 awards will be Akira Hiruma, President and CEO of Hamamatsu Photonics KK; Ray O. Johnson, former Senior Vice President and CTO of Lockheed Martin Corp.; and Peter Leibinger, Vice Chairman of the Managing Board of Trumpf GmbH and Co.
Prism Awards applications are judged by a panel of leading industry experts, venture capitalists, luminaries, and visionaries who select finalists and winners in several categories for new products. Finalists and winners gain increased visibility, recognition, and brand equity through the awards program.
 Faces of photonics innovation: abvove, winners, judges, and presenters of the 2017 Prism Awards for Photonics Innovation. Credit: Joey Cobbs Photography |
About SPIE
SPIE is the international society for optics and photonics, an educational not-for-profit organization founded in 1955 to advance light-based science, engineering, and technology. The Society serves nearly 264,000 constituents from approximately 166 countries, offering conferences and their published proceedings, continuing education, books, journals, and the SPIE Digital Library. In 2016, SPIE provided more than $4 million in support of education and outreach programs. www.spie.org
About Photonics Media
Photonics Media, a brand of Pittsfield, Mass.-based Laurin Publishing Co. Inc., publishes Photonics Spectra, BioPhotonics, EuroPhotonics, Photonics Buyers' Guide and Photonics.com. With a collective subscriber base of more than 150,000 worldwide and more than 4 million unique website visits per year, Laurin Publishing's Photonics Media products and publications lead the photonics industry with editorial excellence and integrity — fostering a tradition of innovation and progress by sharing knowledge, insights and visions for the future. More information at www.photonics.com
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