Optica members are the world's leading scientists, educators, engineers, students and business professionals with an interest in optics and photonics.

We invite you to read about some of the Optica's newsmakers below. You may also submit news about yourself or a colleague.

Optica corporate member news is available in the Corporate Gateway section of Optica.org.

August 2022

• Optica Fellows Naomi Halas and Peter Nordlander receive the Eni Energy Transition Award
• Optica Fellow Irina Larimi receives the Michael E. DeBakey M.D. Award for Excellence in Research

July 2022

• Physics, Optical Engineering & Engineering Physics Students Honored for Academics, Lab Successes
• Optica Fellow John Mangus: Biography chronicles career of optical engineer
• UCF Student Selected for International Optica Women Scholars Award
• Optica Senior Member Alberto Marino and team receive US$1 million grant to explore quantum synchronization

May 2022

• Optica Fellow Martin Dawson elected Fellow of the Royal Society

April 2022

• Optica Fellow Alexandra Boltasseva receives prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship
• Early Career Member Joel Berkson develops new method for measuring radio antennas
• Optica Student Member, Brown Ph.D. student working to correct skin color bias in pulse oximeters

March 2022

• Optica Fellow featured: Faces in Photonics: Andrea Armani of the University of Southern California
• Optica Fellow Aydogan Ozcan receives the 2022 Joseph Fraunhofer Award and Robert M. Burley Prize

February 2022

• Optica Fellow Samuel Achilefu to launch a new Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

November 2021

• Optica Fellow Eric Fossum receives Technology & Engineering Emmy Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
• Optica Fellow Peter Fritschel receives Richard A. Isaacson Award in Gravitational-Wave Science from the American Physical Society. 
• Optica Student Member Ben Bartlett and Optica Fellow Shanhui Fan propose a new design for photonic quantum computers.
• Optica Fellow Polina Bayvel wins 2021 IOP Thomas Young Medal.
• Optica Fellow Mercedeh Khajavikhan and collaborating student design a new tool to make neural networks faster, more powerful and cheaper.
• Optica Director at Large Ekaterina Golovchenko appointed Senior Vice President of Technology and Development of Edmund Optics.

October 2021

• Optica Foundation Chair & 2017 President Eric Mazur discusses the Optica rebrand on the Luminate Accelerator Forward Focus podcast.
• Optica Fellow Herbert Winful receives University of Michigan University Diversity and Social Transformation Professorship.

September 2021

• Optica Fellow Ellen Ochoa celebrated as the first Hispanic woman to go into space.

August 2021 

• OSA Ambassador Margaret Dominguez wins Laser Focus World 2021 Rising Stars Award.

July 2021 

• OSA Fellow Todd Krauss joins a $73 million initiative to advance quantum science and technology.

June 2021 

• OSA Fellow David Hagan named Dean of the College of Optics and Photonics at UCF.

May 2021 

• OSA Board Member and OSA Fellow Sujatha Ramanujan of Luminate Accelerator is a recipient of the Rochester Business Journal 2020 Women of Excellence Awardee. 
• OSA Fellow Claudio Mazzali - On OSA and the Future of Fiber (Podcast).

April 2021 

• OSA Fellow Karl Leo receives the Jan Rajchmann Award from the U.S. Society for Information Display (SID). 
• OSA Fellow Alan E. Wilner among 5 faculty members named university professors and distinguished professors at the University of Southern California. 

March 2021 

• OSA Fellow and Former OSA chief scientific officer Greg Quarles - Directed Energy: Dual Usage and the Transfer of Technology (Podcast). 
• 2019 OSA President and OSA Fellow Ursula Gibson - Novel Core Optical FIbers and Materials (Podcast). 

February 2021 

• OSA Senior Member Dirk Englund - Quantum Photonics: Breakthroughts and Limitations (Podcast).
• OSA Fellow Federico Capasso wins Ives Medal and Quinn Prize in optics. 
• OSA Fellow Martin Dawson named as the 2021 recipient of the Nick Holonyak Jr Award.
• OSA Fellow Susana Marcos to lead Center for Visual Science at the University of Rochester. 
• OSA Fellow Peter Delfyett to be Inducted into the National Academy of Engineering

January 2021 

• OSA Member Thomas A. Searles Receives Inaugural Joseph A. Johnson III Award for Excellence. 

December 2020 

• OSA Fellow Allister Ian Ferguson Recognized as Commander of the British Empire (CBE). 
• Three Scientists Win Quantum Prize - Including OSA Fellow Jun Ye. 
• OSA Fellow Ben Eggleton Wins Prestigious Australian and New Zealand Optical Society Medal.
• 2018 OSA President and OSA Fellow Ian Walmsley - Unlocking a Quantum Advantage: Supercomputing, Sensing and Optics (Podcast).

November 2020 

• Artificial photosynthesis for sustainable solar fuels (Podcast). 

October 2020 

• OSA Fellow Nader Engheta awarded the 2020 Issac Newton Medal and Prize. 

August 2020 

• OSA Fellow and 2020 John Tyndall Award winner, Roel Baets, highlighted in Gazettabyte profile, "Silicon photonics' second wave".

May 2020 

• OSA Fellow Nabeel Riza incucted as a 2020 member of the Royal Irish Academy. 

April 2020 

• OSA Fellow Jian-Wei Pan wins the 2020 ZEISS Research Award for his work in the field of quantum technology. 

March 2020 

• OSA distributes a range of awards highlighting major accompishments in the optics and photonics community. 

January 2020 

• OSA Fellow David Hagan named the interim dean of the College of Optics and Photonics (CREOL) at the University of Central Florida. 
• OSA Member R. Rox Anderson of the Wellman Center for Photomedicine and OSA Fellow Ming-Jun Li of Corning inducted to 2020 class of the National Inventors Hall of Fame.