OSA News

Colleen Morrison Optical Society of America 202.416.1437 cmorri@osa.org

Fifteen Attain 2005 Top Honors from the Optical Society of America

Annual General and Specialty Awards Conferred

July 11, 2005 (Washington, DC)—The Optical Society of America is pleased to announce this year’s recipients of 15 of its most prestigious awards. These award winners join an esteemed group of past recipients in their dedication, inventiveness and vision in the field of optics. This year’s winners include: Theodor W. Hänsch, Frederic Ives Medal/Jarus W. Quinn Endowment; Stephen Benton, Edwin H. Land Medal; Thomas K. Gaylord, Esther Hoffman Beller Medal; Marin Soljacic, Adolph Lomb Medal; John Sandercock, David Richardson Medal; Masataka Nakazawa, R.W. Wood Prize; Ravindra Athale, OSA Leadership Award/New Focus-Bookham Prize; Paul Corkum, Charles Hard Townes Award; Paul Daniel Dapkus, Nick Holonyak, Jr. Award; Harrison H. Barrett, C.E.K. Mees Medal; Alexander Kaplan, Max Born Award; G. Michael Morris, Joseph Fraunhofer Award/Robert M. Burley Prize; Jaan Laane, Ellis R. Lippincott Award; Roger H. Stolen, John Tyndall Award; and Daniel Neumark, William F. Meggers Award.

“OSA’s awards recognize extraordinary achievements in the field of optics and photonics. Their dedication and creativity is essential to the future of our field,” said Elizabeth Rogan, executive director. “Honoring your colleagues for their outstanding accomplishments supports all of our members’ careers. The work of these award winners will continue to influence generations to come."

The selection process for each of the awards is stringent, with all nominees evaluated by a selection committee. While the criteria differ for each award, the judging process remains the same. A nomination form is submitted, along with a brief citation of the nominee’s accomplishments, emphasizing those that make him/her a candidate for the particular award, a one-page narrative description touching on the most significant events in the candidate’s career, a curriculum vitae and a minimum of four letters of reference for the candidate. The OSA Board of Directors appoints a committee to oversee each nomination process. The committee is then responsible for evaluating each applicant and choosing the person most deserving of the award. Finally, the committee’s recommendations are presented to the OSA Board of Directors for final review and approval.

“I know all of the OSA Board is honored to count these individuals among their colleagues. These award winners each have advanced the field through their initiative and deep insight. We are pleased to be able to recognize the outstanding achievements of this year’s recipients,” said OSA president Susan Houde-Walter.

The awards to be presented are as follows:

Frederic Ives Medal/Jarus W. Quinn Endowment
Recipient: Theodor W. Hänsch

The highest award conferred by the Society for overall distinction in optics, this award is presented to Theodor Hänsch for seminal contributions and landmark advances in optical science and atomic physics. He is currently a professor of physics at the Ludwig-Maxmillians-University and director at the Max-Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Germany. As the Ives Medal winner, Hänsch has been invited to present a plenary address at Frontiers in Optics, OSA’s 89th annual meeting.

Edwin H. Land Medal (co-sponsored with the Society for Imaging Science and Technology)
Recipient: Stephen Benton

Co-sponsored with the Society for Imaging Science and Technology, the Land Medal is given in recognition of pioneering entrepreneurial creativity that has had a major public impact. This year’s award goes posthumously to Stephen Benton, founder of the MIT Media Laboratory’s Spatial Imaging Group, for seminal research and innovation in three-dimensional imaging, including the famed rainbow hologram.

Esther Hoffman Beller Award
Recipient: Thomas Gaylord

Thomas Gaylord has been awarded the Esther Hoffman Beller Award, recognizing outstanding contributions to optical science and engineering education, for innovative teaching that has brought the latest research results alive for students for 30 years and for his significant contributions to establishing Georgia Tech’s optics and photonics programs. Gaylord is the Julius Brown Chair and Regents’ Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Adolph Lomb Medal
Recipient: Marin Soljacic

The Lomb Medal, recognizing noteworthy contributions to optics before reaching the age of 35, goes to Marin Soljacic for the discovery of novel soliton phenomena, and for seminal and innovative work in non-linear and time-dependent photonic crystals. Soljacic received his doctorate in 2000 from Princeton, with a thesis topic of nonlinear optics. After graduating, he joined the physics department at MIT as a Pappalardo Fellow and will be an assistant professor of physics at MIT starting in the fall of 2005.

David Richardson Medal
Recipient: John Sandercock

Recognizing contributions to technical optics, the Richardson Medal is presented to John Sandercock for pioneering work in developing the multi-pass Tandem Fabry-Perot Spectrometer and for contributions to the Brillouin spectroscopy of surfaces, interfaces, and thin films. Sandercock started JRS Scientific Instruments, a company that is now a leading manufacturer of active isolation systems.

R.W. Wood Prize
Recipients: Masataka Nakazawa

The Wood Prize recognizes an outstanding discovery, a scientific or technological achievement or an invention. Masataka Nakazawa is being honored for inventing the 1.48 µm InGaAsP laser-diode-pumped erbium-doped fiber amplifier and the development of its application to high-speed optical communications and short pulse lasers. He is a professor of the Research Institute of Electrical Communication of Tohoku University in Japan.

OSA Leadership Award/New Focus - Bookham Prize
Recipient: Ravindra Athale

Recognized for his visionary leadership within the optics community through research contributions, innovations in teaching and ground-breaking technology programs, Ravindra Athale has been selected to receive the OSA Leadership Award/New Focus - Bookham Prize. This award is presented to recognize an individual or a group of optics professionals who have made a significant impact in the field of optics and/or made a significant contribution to society. Athale is currently a photonics program manager in the Microsystems technology office in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Charles Hard Townes Award
Recipient: Paul Corkum

Paul Corkum is receiving the C. H. Townes Award in recognition of outstanding contributions to the field of quantum electronics. He is being honored for his key contributions to the understanding of the physics of atoms and molecules in intense laser fields and the application of these ideas to ultra-fast measurement techniques. Corkum is currently working at the National Research Council Canada.

Nick Holonyak, Jr. Award
Recipient: Paul Daniel Dapkus

Honoring his seminal contributions to the development of metal organic chemical vapor deposition and its application to quantum well laser devices, Paul Daniel Dapkus is being presented the Nick Holonyak Jr. Award. This award recognizes significant contributions to optics based on semiconductor materials, including basic science and technological applications. Since 1982, Dapkus has been on the faculty of the University of Southern California. He is the W.M. Keck Professor of Engineering.

C.E.K. Mees Medal
Recipient: Harrison Barrett

For outstanding contributions leading to widespread applications of optical imaging science in disciplines as diverse as medicine and astrophysics, Harrison Barrett has been awarded this year’s C.E.K. Mees Medal presented in recognition of interdisciplinary and international contributions. Barrett is Regents Professor of Optical Sciences, Radiology and Applied Mathematics at the University of Arizona and directs the Center for Gamma-Ray Imaging.

Max Born Award
Recipient: Alexander Kaplan

This year’s recipient of the Max Born Award, presented in recognition of outstanding contributions to physical, theoretical or experimental optics, is Alexander Kaplan for seminal contributions to non-linear interface and optical bistability effects, hysteretic resonances of a single electron and physics of subfemosecond pulses. Kaplan is a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

Joseph Fraunhofer Award/Robert M. Burley Prize
Recipient: G. Michael Morris

G. Michael Morris, founder of Apollo Optical Systems, has been selected to receive the Joseph Fraunhofer Award recognizing significant accomplishments in optical engineering. He is being honored for innovation in the design, theory and application of diffractive and hybrid optical elements to solve a wide range of problems. Morris also co-founded RPC Photonics which develops optical components for the display and solid-state lighting industries. Ellis R. Lippincott Award (co-sponsored with the Coblentz Society and the Society for Applied Spectroscopy)
Recipient: Jaan Laane

A professor of chemistry at Texas A&M University, Jaan Laane has been selected to receive the Lippincott Award for his innovative use of vibrational spectroscopy to determine molecular structure and to unravel complex intramolecular dynamics. The Lippincott Award recognizes outstanding contributions to vibrational spectroscopy and the selection committee consists of members from all three societies.

John Tyndall Award (co-sponsored with IEEE/Lasers and Electro-Optics Society)
Recipient: Roger Stolen

Awarded in recognition of contributions to fiber optic technology, the Tyndall award goes to Roger Stolen for fundamental contributions to the understanding of optical fiber nonlinearities. Stolen is a retired professor of electrical engineering and a member of the Fiber and Electro-Optics Center at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg Virginia. Before coming to Virginia Tech in the fall of 1998, he was on the technical staff of AT&T Labs-Research in Red Bank, NJ.

William F. Meggers Award
Recipient: Daniel Neumark

Daniel Neumark is being honored with the Meggers Award for his pioneering contributions to the molecular spectroscopy of transient species. The William F. Meggers award honors outstanding work in spectroscopy. Neumark is on the chemistry department faculty at the University of California at Berkeley.

OSA bestows these awards annually, and the formal presentation ceremony will take place during the plenary session on the morning of October 17, 2005 during the Society’s annual meeting, Frontiers in Optics. More information about the OSA awards program, previous award winners, and the annual meeting can be found on OSA's Web site at www.osa.org.

About OSA

The Optical Society of America (OSA) brings together an international network of the industry’s preeminent optics and photonics scientists, engineers, educators, technicians and business leaders. Representing 15,000 members from approximately 100 different countries, OSA promotes the worldwide generation, application and dissemination of optics and photonics knowledge through its meetings, events and journals. Since its founding in 1916, OSA member benefits, programming, publications, products and services have set the industry's standard of excellence. Additional information on OSA is available on the Society’s Web site at www.osa.org. OSA is proud to be a part of the World Year of Physics, a celebration of physics and the 100th anniversary of some of Einstein’s greatest achievements. Optics is the branch of physics that studies the properties of light. For additional information on World Year of Physics, visit www.physics2005.org.

Editor’s Note: Complete biographies for and photos of the recipients are available upon request.

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