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Louise Slaughter was honored by the RRPC with a Lifetime Achievement award; above with RRPC's Tom Battley. |
Four SPIE Members have won election to the Board of Directors at the Rochester Regional Photonics Cluster (RRPC). The nonprofit organization which promotes and enhances the photonics, optics and imaging industry in the Rochester, New York, area also announced recipients of three annual awards and a special lifetime achievement award for U.S. Rep. Louise Slaughter at its annual meeting 5 September.
The 2013 RRPC Entrepreneurship Award was presented to SPIE Member Michael Bechtold, CEO of OptiPro, for demonstrating creativity, innovative spirit, and drive in pursuit of the dream of creating an industry-leading company in the optics, photonics and imaging industry.
SPIE Members Michele Nichols, owner and president of PLS Launch Solutions; Rick Plympton, CEO of Optimax; and Chuck Synborski, vice president of sales, marketing, and business development at G-S Plastic Optics, were elected to two-year terms on the board. SPIE Member Christopher Cotton, general manager and founder of ASE Optics, was re-elected to the board.
The four join SPIE Member Paul Dewa of Corning on the 11-person RRPC board.
The new RRPC Board of Directors includes subject matter experts in marketing, competitive government grants, optics industry expertise, and intellectual property development, said John Hart, RRPC Board president and president and CEO of Lumetrics.
The RRPC honored Slaughter (D-New York) for her support of optics, photonics, and imaging research, development, and manufacturing throughout her Congressional career, including her support of the National Photonics Initiative (NPI).
The NPI is a collaborative alliance among industry, academia, and government seeking to raise awareness of photonics and the impact of photonics on our everyday lives. The NPI also seeks to increase cooperation and coordination among US industry, government, and academia to advance photonics-driven fields and drive US funding and investment in areas of photonics critical to maintaining US economic competitiveness and national security.
The NPI is led by a coalition of scientific societies, including SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics.
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