Who has made the third Photonics100 list? The wait is over… and thank heavens for that! We had a record number of entries in 2024 and we’re really pleased to be able to finally share the results of your many nominations.
It’s slightly more than two years since we had a hunch there was an untapped opportunity to shine a light on the people making the photonics sector so exciting! We said then – and we’re still saying it today – that the pace of development continues to be breathtaking. Despite global challenges – and it seems they keep getting grimmer – the rate of start-ups remains inspiring (I’m thinking back just a few weeks to VISION 2024, for example); politicians remain determined to accelerate the impact of your work, despite funding pressure elsewhere; while the role of photonics as an enabling technology supporting our day-to-day lives grows ever more critical.
The Photonics100, from the team behind Electro Optics, celebrates the people that drive our industry forward – the innovators, the boundary-pushers, the disruptors, the out-of-the-box thinkers and the R&D ‘rock stars’. This chance to celebrate the often unsung heroes at the cutting edge of our industry – Chief Technical Officers, Heads of R&D, Senior Engineers, research leaders, entrepreneurs and others – has transformed our content. Thank you for your enthusiasm, energy and infectious interest in making our third year certainly our best!
You will recall we again asked for nominations operating in any of these four categories:
- Photonics vendors – suppliers and integrators of photonics components and systems, such as optics, lasers, sensors, test and measurement, optoelectronics, illumination and imaging.
- Original Equipment Manufacturers using photonics – integrators using photonics as an enabling technology in vertical markets such as life sciences, defence, automotive, aerospace, mechanical engineering, electronics, semiconductors and optical communications.
- Start-ups – companies under five years old, operating as either a photonics vendor or an OEM (as defined above).
- Academia/research – either those involved in photonics research itself or those using photonic technology to further research in a non-photonics field, such as physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, engineering and more.
This year, nominations came from a wide range of countries and the sheer volume of entrants was very welcome. As you would expect, there was some heated debate, but little compromise… This is a hard-fought list to make and, so, congratulations are duly in order for this year’s honorees. We are proud to be able to help celebrate your inspiring work.
We hope it creates a compelling snapshot of the widely recognised and the less familiar. Nominations have come from colleagues and customers, long-distance admirers and confidantes. It’s been quite a job deciding on a final cut and it’s timely to thank the wider team at Europa Science and beyond with helping us make these difficult calls and bringing the project to life. Paul Hamblin’s work as project editor and Fin O’Reilly’s guiding steer have proved invaluable in getting this created on-schedule and in such great shape. A big thank you to you both.
No project as ambitious as this can exist without the help of our commercial partners. In particular, our sincere thanks again to Admesy, who are with us as sponsors for a third year.
This year, we have decided to mix things up a little with our first-ever Photonics100 event, supported by Chroma Technology. Our meetup takes place in Manchester, alongside Photonex, later this week. Watch this space for more updates from Wednesday.
The print edition of the 2025 list will be available at the end of November.
We expect some debate on this list and the many other topics we create content about, so join the discussion on our social channels at www.linkedin/showcase/electro-optics and on X @electrooptics. Thank you to everyone for your support in our third year and congratulations to all 100 of you who have made our list. I said it last year, but it needs saying again: none of this would be possible without you.
Mark Elliott,
Chief Operating Officer,
Europa Science
