Scientific and engineering advancements from the global optics and photonics community shape our world, but these achievements require financial investments to explore their merit and bring them to market. The Optica Foundation launched its 20th Anniversary Challenge to address this need, draw out novel ideas from early-career professionals, and provide the seed money to investigate impactful hypotheses in the areas of environment, health, and information.
The following award winners each received $100,000 USD to explore their ideas and take steps toward addressing critical global issues:
Environment:
- Dismas Choge, University of Eldoret, Kenya
Development of tunable multi-color laser for sensing: case study for hyperspectral detection of water contaminants
- Ashim Dhakal, Phutung Research Institute, Nepal
Piloting an affordable and real-time Water Assessment System (WAS) for detection of fecal coliforms in drinking water
- Michela Florinda Picardi, ICFO - The Institute of Photonics Sciences, Spain
THUNDER - THermal UNpolarized radiation Design for Energy Recycling
- Wanvisa Talataisong, Suranaree University of Technology, Thailand
An innovative optical fibre device for micro-pollutants and greenhouse gas monitoring
Health
- Guangwei Hu, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Single-shot, Isotropic and Miniaturized Differential Interference Contrast (SIM-DIC) Microscopy based on computational flat-optics
- Xingchen Ji, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
Developing low-cost, portable, integrated OCT systems using low-loss silicon nitride platform
- Florian Willomitzer, University of Arizona, USA
Noninvasive high-resolution imaging through living tissue with single-shot synthetic wavelength holography
Information
- Chaoran Huang, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Integrated photonic neuromorphic processor enabled intelligent, energy-efficient signal processing for the next-generation communication systems
- Mark Lawrence, Washington University in St. Louis, USA
Fast, low-power, and high-resolution meta-reflect-arrays for massive space-division-multiplexing
- Mengjie Yu, University of Southern California, USA
Integrated high-speed mid-infrared electro-optic modulator for free space optical communication
"The selection committee is inspired by the outstanding quality of the awardees who truly represent the finest aspects of our membership. The winning proposals demonstrate superior creative ingenuity, applying photonics in novel ways to work toward solutions for a wide berth of society's most critical challenges," said Alan Willner, chair of the 20th Anniversary Challenge Selection Committee and an Optica past president. "The award money will help provide recipients with an opportunity to explore their innovative ideas and benefit the larger good in the process."
Selected from nearly 100 global applications, these 10 recipients are set to begin their research immediately. Additional details about their award-winning proposals will be released in the coming weeks; updates on programmatic milestones will be shared by mid-2023.
Optica Foundation
