SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION: Max-Planck student wins Maiman Student Paper Competition
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDUCTION: Spotlight on inspiring the next generation of scientists and business leaders
GRACE KLONOSKI
Georg Anetsberger of the Max-Planck-Institute of Quantum Optics was named the winner in the first Theodore Maiman Student Paper Competition, a new award program honoring the work of physicist Theodore Maiman, the inventor of the first working laser. Anetsberger took the top prize for his paper, "Ultralow Dissipation Optomechanical Resonators on a Chip." He received his award during the Conference on Lasers and Electro Optics/International Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/IQEC) held May 31 to June 5, 2009, in Baltimore, MD.
The Maiman Student Paper Competition was established in 2008 to recognize innovation, research excellence, and presentation skills in the areas of laser technology and electro-optics. Finalists in the competition present their papers to the CLEO/IQEC program and general chairs during a private session at the start of the conference. Award winners are announced on-site. The award is administered by the OSA Foundation and supported by HRL Laboratories, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Photonics Society and the American Physical Society (APS) Division of Laser Science.
Selected as honorable mentions in the 2009 competition were Jens Bethge, of the Max Born Institute, Germany, for his paper, "A Chirped Photonic Crystal Fiber for High-Fidelity Guiding of Sub-100 fs Pulses"; and Jean-Michel Menard, from the University of Toronto, Canada, for the paper, "Spin Hall Effect of Light in a Semiconductor."
In all, 23 semi-finalists were selected from more than 920 student paper submissions. The papers were reviewed by the CLEO/IQEC technical program committee using the CLEO/IQEC paper review criteria. "The Maiman competition recognizes the most promising innovation and research among today's lasers and electro optics students worldwide and helps identify our industry's leaders of tomorrow," said Tim Carrig of Lockheed Martin, one of the conference program chairs. "We were impressed by the quality of the student contributions and look forward to continuing to recognize up-and-coming researchers through this award competition."
The 2009 semi-finalists were:
•Cheng-Yen Chen, National Taiwan Univ., Taiwan
•Long Chen, Cornell Univ., USA
•Pascal Del'Haye, Max-Planck-Institute of Quantum Optics, Germany
•Tal Ellenbogen, Tel-Aviv Univ., Israel
•D. Hayes, Univ. of Maryland, USA
•Oliver Heckl, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
•Shu-Wei Huang, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
•Zubin Jacob, Purdue Univ., USA
•Noriyuki Lee, The Univ. of Tokyo, Japan
•Jinkang Lim, Kansas State Univ., USA
•Euan McLeod, Princeton Univ., USA
•Scott Nuccio, Univ. of Southern California, USA
•Andreas Oehler, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
•Michael Rill, Univ. Karlsruhe (TH), Germany
•Christopher Rohde, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
•Alexander Sell, Univ. of Konstanz, Germany
•Elizabeth Smythe, Harvard Univ., USA
•Amy Turner-Foster, Cornell Univ., USA
•Petter Westbergh, Chalmers Univ. of Technology, Sweden
•Nanfang Yu, Harvard Univ., USA
Theodore H. Maiman, a scientist at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, CA, developed, demonstrated and patented the world's first laser in 1960, using a high-power flash lamp on a ruby rod with silver-coated surfaces. Maiman, who has been called "the father of the electro-optics industry," also held patents on masers, laser displays, optical scanning, and laser modulation. At the time of his invention, the laser was called both a "death ray" and "a solution in search of a problem." Since then, lasers have become a multibillion-dollar industry with applications in every area of modern life, including barcoding, compact discs and DVDs, fiber-optic communications, medical and dental uses, and military technology.
The OSA Foundation was established in 2002 to support philanthropic activities that help further the Optical Society's (OSA) mission by concentrating its efforts on programs that advance youth science education, provide optics and photonics education to underserved populations, provide career and professional development resources and support awards and honors that recognize technical and business excellence. The grants funded by the OSA Foundation are made possible by the generous donations of its supporters as well as the dollar-for-dollar match by OSA. The Foundation is exempt from U.S. federal income taxes under section 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code and is a public charity. To learn more about the OSA Foundation or to find out how to donate, please visit www.osa-foundation.org or e-mail [email protected]'.
GRACE KLONOSKI is the Senior Director, Foundation, Membership & Education Services for the Optical Society of America, 2010 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20036;
e-mail: [email protected] '; www.osa.org