March 27, 2008, Cardiff, Wales, UK--Henri Rajbenbach, European Commission (EC) Scientific Project Manager, will be presented with the 2008 SPIE Europe Recognition award at the opening ceremony of SPIE Europe's Photonics Europe symposium April 7 in Strasbourg, France. The award is being given in honor of his service and dedication to the European photonics community.
Rajbenbach has been the EC's project manager in the areas of microelectronic integration, sensors and displays since 1997, and has played an important role in stimulating activity in photonics in Europe. He is highly esteemed for his pioneering contributions.
In 2000, he launched the initiative on Optics and Optoelectronics in the Information Society Technologies program. Under his coordination, coverage expanded from telecommunications to include component research for health care, life science, environment, and security.
More recently, Rajbenbach was assigned to a project portfolio in micro- and nanosystems, supporting multidisciplinary research for the integration of core technologies (nanoelectronics, microfluidics, micromechanics and photonics) and associated materials (silicon, compound semiconductors, polymers and organics). Applications address biochips and biosensors, microdisplays, large-area organic devices, and miniaturized smart-system sensors and actuators.
"Dr. Rajbenbach's work in the EC has been extremely important in drawing attention to optics and photonics and ensuring that they are included in the programs of the EC," said professor Maria J. Yzuel of Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona and SPIE 2008 president-elect. "This provides important vision for the development of research and industry in Europe."
Prior to joining the EC, Rajbenbach conducted research in image processing and lasers for biometrics, security, and defense applications at Thomson-CSF (now Thales), France, and in optical signal processing and computing at the University of California, San Diego, CA.
He has published some 50 conference and journal publications and two textbook chapters, and holds patents in information processing, biometrics, photorefractive materials, semiconductor lasers, real-time holography, optical storage, image processing, and target recognition. He has taught an optoelectronics graduate course at University of Paris XI, summer-school classes in Europe, and undergraduate courses in the U.S.
Rajbenbach graduated from the Ecole Supérieure de Physique et Chimie Industrielles, ESPCI in 1983 and received his Ph.D from the Université de Paris VI in 1984. He has been an SPIE member since 1984.
--V.C.