Annual SPIE Awards
Scientists receive SPIE Kingslake, Directors', and President's awards.
Each year SPIE recognizes outstanding achievements through its awards program. The Awards Committee announced the 2009 recipients of the SPIE Gold Medal, Technology Achievement, and several other awards in April. The following awards were announced this summer:
Optical metrology and instrumentation innovator Hans Tiziani has received the 2009 SPIE President's Award for meritorious service to the Society and to the optics and photonics community.
Tiziani, a professor emeritus of the University of Stuttgart (Germany), was recognized for his leadership and support of SPIE technical programs, for his service on the SPIE Board of Directors, and for his comprehensive guidance on how SPIE should best serve the community in Europe.
"Hans Tiziani's deep knowledge and insights have been called on many times at the highest level of German science and innovation," said SPIE President María Yzuel. "His sensitivity and care for people illuminate everything that he does."
Drawing on distinguished careers in both industry and academia, Tiziani has been uniquely positioned to help foster relationships for SPIE with many leaders in the complex pattern of community organizations in Europe, she said. "He recognizes SPIE's unique strengths and seeks what is best for optics and photonics in Europe."
SPIE Fellow Bruce J. Tromberg has received the SPIE Directors' Award for 2009 in recognition of a decade of outstanding leadership as editor-in-chief of the SPIE Journal of Biomedical Optics.
His tireless commitment and dedication to the journal has helped it become one of the top-ranked journals in optics. Since 2001, the journal has achieved an annual impact factor that has consistently ranked in the top 5 of optics journals. JBO increased its publication frequency from quarterly to bimonthly in 2004 and has seen a more than five-fold increase in the number of papers published annually since Tromberg became editor.
Tromberg has long been active with SPIE Committees and was recently elected to serve on the Board of Directors. He previously served on the board from 2004 to 2006.
Dutch scientists Milan Maksimovic, Manfred Hammer, and E.W.C. van Groesen have been named recipients of the 2008 Rudolf Kingslake Medal and Prize for the most noteworthy original paper to appear in "Optical Engineering," the flagship journal of SPIE.
Their paper, Coupled optical defect microcavities in one-dimensional photonic crystals and quasi-normal mode, appeared in the November 2008 issue of OE. 
"Photonic crystals have revolutionized the study of the optical physics of materials," said Eustace Dereniak, chair of the Kingslake Award committee and newly elected SPIE vice president. "This paper presents a straightforward and reasonable approach for analyzing multi-cavity structures and reveals that micro-cavities are defect structures that support higher valued transmission modes," Dereniak said.
All papers on theoretical or experimental aspects of optical engineering published in the journal are automatically eligible for consideration for this award. Nominations are not required.
The recipients will share a $2000 honorarium.
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