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SPIE 2006 Scholarship and Grant Recipients

01 April 2007

This year SPIE will award 129 SPIE scholarships and grants, for a total of $260,500, to SPIE student members and educational institutions.

The mission of the SPIE Scholarships and Grants Program is to recognize, assist, and encourage SPIE student members and academic organizations with outstanding potential for long-range contribution to the field of optics and photonics.

Award-winning applicants were evaluated and selected by the SPIE Scholarship Committee and approved in April by the SPIE Board of Directors' Executive Committee.

Forty-two of the scholarships will be given to U.S. citizens (39%), and 66 to applicants from other countries (61%), including Afghanistan, Australia, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, India, Iran, Ireland, Latvia, Mexico, Nigeria, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey, and the Ukraine. Of the 108 scholarships awarded, 27 will be given to women (25%).

Twelve grants are to U.S.-based institutions and nine to institutions in other countries, including Ireland, Russia, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.

"To date, SPIE has distributed nearly $3 million dollars in individual scholarships and institutional grants. This ambitious effort reflects the Society's commitment to education and to the next generation of optical scientists and engineers around the world," says SPIE President Paul McManamon.

SPIE 2006 Scholarship Recipients

Recipients of SPIE Scholarships named in honor of meritorious individuals or programs are:

D. J. Lovell Scholarship: Kenneth J. Chau, Univ. of Alberta (Canada). The $11,000 D. J. Lovell Scholarship is the Society's most prestigious scholarship. This scholarship is sponsored by SPIE with contributions from Labsphere Inc.

The second largest scholarship given by SPIE, the $10,000 SPIE Scholarship in Optical Science and Engineering, was awarded to Khyati S. Mohanty, Maharaja Sayajirao Univ. of Baroda (Baroda, India). Read more about Chau and Mohanty here.

Laser Technology, Engineering and Applications Scholarship: Miguel A. Bandrés, California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, CA). This $4,000 scholarship is awarded in recognition of the student's scholarly achievement in laser technology, engineering, or applications. This is sponsored by SPIE with contributions from the Forum for Military Applications of Directed Energy (F-MADE).

William H. Price Scholarship in Optical Engineering: Costin E. Curatu, Univ. of Central Florida (Orlando, FL). The $3,000 William H. Price Scholarship in Optical Engineering was established in 1985 to honor Bill Price, a well-respected member of the SPIE technical community. This scholarship is awarded to a full-time graduate or undergraduate student in the field of optical design and engineering.

BACUS Photomask Scholarship: Wojtek J. Poppe, Univ. of California, Berkeley. The $2,500 BACUS Scholarship is awarded to a full-time undergraduate or graduate student in the field of microlithography with an emphasis on optical tooling and/or semiconductor manufacturing technologies. This scholarship is sponsored by BACUS, SPIE's Photomask International Technical Group.

Other SPIE Scholarship Recipients

Viswanathan Alagan, National Institute of Technology (India)

Félicie Albert, College of Optics & Photonics/Univ. of Central Florida

Kirk D. Anderson, Michigan Technological Univ.

Subashini Asokan, Rice Univ.

Joseph L. Baccanti, Indiana Univ. of Pennsylvania

Ivan Barrientos, Univ. of Arizona

Prashant P. Baveja, Delhi College of Engineering (India)

Sam I. Bennett-Williams, Hickman High School

Rostyslav Bilyy, Institute of Cell Biology (Ukraine)

Matthew B. Bouchard, Northeastern Univ.

Ozan Cakmakci, College of Optics & Photonics/Univ. of Central Florida

Hüseyin Çankaya, Koç Univ. (Turkey)

Daniel Ceperley, Univ. of California/Berkeley

Emmanuel Chang, Rice Univ.

Weibin Chen, Univ. of Dayton

Thomas (Hsin-Chi) Chia, Yale Univ.

Amit Kumar Choubey, Dr. MGR Educational & Research Institute (India)

Aisling Clarke, Dublin City Univ. (Ireland)

Justin R. Crepp, Univ. of Florida

James Davis, Bountiful High School

Jahan M. Dawlaty, Cornell Univ.

Christopher R. DeAngelis, Rochester Institute of Technology

Matthew Donnelly, St. Bernard High School

Yaroslav Dudin, Moscow Engineering Physics Institute (Russia)

Priti Duggal, Univ. of Texas/Austin

Sean Dupont, Texas A&M Univ.

Jordan C. Dwelle, Univ. of Texas/Austin

Aysegul Ergin, New Jersey Institute of Technology

Renars Erts, Univ. of Latvia (Latvia)

Paul R. Farnam, Rock Bridge High School

Kyle H. Fuerschbach, Univ. of Arizona

Anna Gavrilova, Saratov State Univ. (Russia)

Seth R. Ginter, Univ. of Arizona

Michael R. Gleeson, National Univ. of Ireland/Dublin (Ireland)

Dathon Golish, Univ. of Arizona

Samuel A. Gross, Thomas Jefferson High School

Mingxia Gu, Kent State Univ.

Manuel Guizar-Sicairos, Univ. of Rochester

Nathan Hagen, Univ. of Arizona

Raúl I. Hernández Aranda, Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey (Mexico)

Olena A. Ivashyna, Washington Univ. in St. Louis

Yana V. Izdebskaya, V. Vernadsky National Univ. (Ukraine)

Alex Jiao, Northville High School

Sergio J. Johnson, Univ. of Arizona

Joshua J. Kim, Univ. of Arizona

Anika Kinkhabwala, Stanford Univ.

Gregor Knoener, The Univ. of Queensland (Australia)

Nadezhda E. Kotova, Moscow Engineering Physics Institute (Russia)

Elena Krutkova, MV Lomonosov Moscow State Univ. (Russia)

Kumar Rajesh, Cochin Univ. of Science & Technology (India)

Liana V. Kuznetsova, Saratov State Univ. (Russia)

Tracy H. Law, Univ. of Arizona

Andrew Leifer, Stanford Univ.

Jacob Levy, Duke Univ.

Sam Litvin, Univ. of California/San Diego

Yannick K. Lize, École Polytechnique de Montréal (Canada)

Carlos López Mariscal, Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey (Mexico)

Angelika Luchenko, National Taras Shevchenko Univ. of Kyiv (Ukraine)

Viktor Lysiuk, National Taras Shevchenko Univ. of Kyiv (Ukraine)

Nikolay S. Makarov, Montana State Univ.

Konstantinos Makris, College of Optics & Photonics/Univ. of Central Florida

Alexander P. Maksimyak, Chernivtsi National Univ. (Ukraine)

Jesson Martin, National Institute of Technlogy/Tiruchirappalli (India)

John W. McMurdy, Brown Univ.

Scott Mettlen, Indiana Univ. of Pennsylvania

Brian W. Miller, College of Optical Sciences/Univ. of Arizona

Norman N. M. F. Milton, Univ. of Arizona

Songyot Nakariyakul, Carnegie Mellon Univ.

Michael D. Niemack, Princeton Univ.

Katarzyna Niewiadomska, Observatoire Océanologique de Villefrache sur Mer (France)

Oksana Olkhovyk, Kent State Univ.

Kayode C. Oloke, Canadian College of Business & Computers (Canada)

Shannon M. Orbons, Univ. of Melbourne (Australia)

Simon J. W. Parkin, The Univ. of Queensland (Australia)

Gretel M. Png, Univ. of Adelaide (Australia)

Nataliya Polikarpova, MV Lomonosov Moscow State Univ. (Russia)

Alexey Popov, MV Lomonosov Moscow State Univ. (Russia)

David L. R. Press, Stanford Univ.

Anna Pyajt, Univ. of Washington

Jeff Richey, Univ. of Arizona

David R. Scherer, Univ. of Arizona

Matthew B. Schwab, Univ. of Arizona

Bohdan Senyuk, Kent State Univ.

Evgeniy E. Serebriannikov, MV Lomonosov Moscow State Univ. (Russia)

Meghna Singh, Univ. of Alberta (Canada)

Iliya V Sizykh, Moscow Engineering Physics Institute (Russia)

Jason Slinker, Cornell Univ.

Irina Soboleva, MV Lomonosov Moscow State Univ. (Russia)

Nicholas D. Trail, Univ. of Arizona

Yaroslav Urzhumov, Univ. of Texas/Austin

Yevheniya Ushenko, Chernivtsi National Univ. (Ukraine)

Paulino Vacas, Centro de Investigaciones en Óptica (Mexico)

Laura B. Valdmanis, Prior Lake High School

Pouria Valley, College of Optical Sciences/Univ. of Arizona

Jaron Van Dijken, Univ. of Alberta (Canada)

Andy van Popta, Univ. of Alberta (Canada)

Maria Vashuk, Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics (Russia)

Brianna A. Wills, Linn State Technical College

Scott J. Woltman, Brown Univ.

Yinying Xiao-Li, Univ. of Arizona

Sigang Yang, Tsinghua Univ. (China)

GuangWei Yuan, Colorado State Univ.

Rami F. Zewail, Univ. of Alberta (Canada)

2006 SPIE Grant Recipients

Chernivtsi National Univ. (Ukraine)

College of Charleston

Colorado School of Mines

Ivan Franko National Univ. of Lviv SPIE Student Chapter (Ukraine)

Great Lakes SPIE Regional Chapter and Great Lakes Student Chapters

Kharkov National Univ. (Ukraine)

Montclair State University

MV Lomonosov Moscow State Univ. (Russia)

New Mexico State Univ.

Rice Univ.

St. Petersburg State Polytechnic Univ. (Russia)

St. Petersburg State Univ. of ITMO (Russia)

National Taras Shevchenko Univ. of Kyiv (Ukraine)

Texas Christian Univ.

Three Rivers Community College

Univ. College Dublin SPIE Student Chapter (Ireland)

Univ. College London (UK)

Univ. of Arizona, College of Optical Sciences

Univ. of N. Carolina/Chapel Hill

Univ. of Rochester, Institute of Optics

Washington Univ. School of Medicine

And the Winner Was. . .

Jennifer Kehlet Barton received the 1997 D. J. Lovell Scholarship as a PhD student in biomedical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.

After graduating, she immediately interviewed for faculty positions, unsure whether she would be seriously considered without post-doctorate experience.

"I am certain that this prestigious scholarship helped convince the search committee that I was the most worthy candidate," says Barton. She also believes it played a role in her secondary appointment at the UA Optical Sciences Center two years later.

Since then, she has become an associate professor at the University of Arizona (UA; Tucson, AZ), teaching bioinstrumentation and bio-photonics, as well as signals and systems.

Her research focuses on developing miniature delivery systems for optical diagnostic techniques, particularly optical coherence tomography and fluorescence spectroscopy.

Her project group has used small, high-resolution endoscopes for time-serial visualization of epithelial cancer development and cell growth in bioreactors.