Barrington, NJ--Optical components supplierEdmund Optics announced the finalists for its 2013 Higher Education Global Grant Program (see http://www.edmundoptics.com/grant). Just more than 800 applications were received from 60 countries around the world. This year Edmund Optics will be awarding grants totaling more than $85,000 dollars in Edmund Optics products to the winners.
Fifteen finalists were selected from each of three regions--the Americas, Asia, and Europe. The grant award recipients from each of the three regions will be officially announced on September 4, 2013. In addition, the program that best embodies the legacy of Edmund Optics’ founder, Norman Edmund, will be awarded an additional $5,000 dollars in products on October 9, 2013.
"This is the fourth year of our Higher Education Global Grant Program and it is only getting better. It's exciting to see the number of applications we receive from around the world and incredible to learn of the diversity of research that is being conducted at the academic level," remarked Kirsten Bjork-Jones, director of Global Marketing Communications. "The technical expertise and determination of the applicants make this grant program extremely rewarding for Edmund Optics. Our mission has always been to support the emergence of new technology and optical innovation - nothing is more satisfying than helping an idea come to fruition."
The 45 hopeful finalists, representing 21 different countries, submitted applications ranging from developing handheld optical coherence tomography (OCT) probes for non-invasive diagnostics in primary healthcare to real-time optical detectors for airborne asbestos detection. Finalists can look forward to joining EO’s elite group of grant recipients (http://www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/2012/09/edmund-optics-names-2012-higher-education-award-winners.html) who continue to accelerate optical innovation.
The difficult task of selecting the winning grant award recipients from so many worthy finalists lies ahead for EO's global award team. The team will select three award recipients for each region, the Americas, Asia, and Europe respectively, based on two criteria: (1) technical merit, which is the application of optics in the program, and (2) the innovative use of optics in a lab or research setting.
SOURCE: Edmund Optics; http://www.edmundoptics.com/company/press-releases/press-article.cfm?id=409