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The Photonics Frontiers Award 2025

The Photonics Frontiers Award

Photonics Frontiers is changing! We’re thrilled to launch the Photonics Frontiers Award, celebrating projects that harness photonics to tackle real-world challenges.

Open to integrators, OEMs, academics, and end users, the award highlights innovation, user impact, and market potential in these categories: Photonic and optical sensors; Imaging technologies; Spectroscopy and analytical techniques; Biophotonics and healthcare applications; Optical communications and networking; Laser technologies and applications; Environmental monitoring and sustainability.

Enter for free by 15 March, 2025, for a chance to gain global recognition. For more information, read our launch article below.

The latest Photonics Frontiers Award news

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Thanks to the Photonics Frontiers Award 2025 sponsors

Supporting sponsor
Category sponsor - Biophotonics and healthcare applications
Associate sponsor

Life Sciences

Professor Reuven Gordon (left) with his team from the University of Victoria in Canada

Optical trapping and observing the smallest proteins 'answers fundamental questions about life'

A label-free optical trapping technique has enabled groundbreaking research in life sciences
Experimental optical tweezer set-up
Optical trapping single proteins in real time

in association with

Lumencor logo
Figure 1
"Ideal laser illumination for MERFISH, STORM, PALM and PAINT" is readily within reach
Professor Ralf Jungmann, of the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich
Ångström-scale microscopy resolves ‘previously unimaginable’ biology
Dr Ji-Xin Cheng, Boston University
Ultra-sensitive vibrational spectroscopy method advances cancer research
A cleanroom worker holds up an integrated circuit wafer
Silicon nitride platform expands PIC development for life sciences applications

Life Sciences Case Studies

Light-sheet microscopes illuminate samples with a thin sheet of light
Navigating the evolution of light-sheet microscopy through time and technology
Fluorescence imaging can present a balancing act
Case study: A flexible approach for fluorescence imaging photonics
Figure 1
"Ideal laser illumination for MERFISH, STORM, PALM and PAINT" is readily within reach

 

Medical

Robert Haupt (fourth from left) with the Lincoln Laboratory researchers

Portable and safe ‘photoacoustic MRI’ could monitor cancer more efficiently

A non-contact laser ultrasound offers similar capabilities to MRI and CT scans but at vastly lower cost
Photoacoustic scanner
Photoacoustic scanner likened to MRI overcomes ultrasound limitations

In association with

Emerging technologies and approaches offer promise to revolutionise tissue identification (Credit: Avantes)
Spectroscopic precision: Elevating tissue identification with advanced spectrometers
David Fernandez-Rivas, the co-founder of Flowbeams, and a diagram showing how the laser injector works
Laser-based needle-free injection cuts infection risk, optimises medicine doses
Fluorescent immunoassay analyser
Fluorescence assay device brings diagnosis to the point of care
Professor Pola Goldberg Oppenheimer
Handheld Raman device diagnoses traumatic brain injury ‘on the scene’

Medical Case Studies

glucose monitoring photonics
Revolutionising diabetes care with non-invasive glucose monitoring
Emerging technologies and approaches offer promise to revolutionise tissue identification (Credit: Avantes)
Spectroscopic precision: Elevating tissue identification with advanced spectrometers

 

Aerospace

A jet engine exhaust being tested with a laser beam

What photonics tech do aviation researchers want?

Todd Lowe leads a research team focused on experimental aerodynamics and aeroacoustics. He outlines his wish list for the cameras, tunable lasers and spectroscopy products that will drive aviation research
Filtered Rayleigh Scattering for Thrust measurement on an aircraftengine
Boeing examines aircraft aerodynamics with laser-based technique

Aerospace Case Studies

optics in space applications
Navigating the challenges of optical component design for commercial space ventures
The paylod module of the Euclid space teelscope
ESA’s ‘Dark Universe detector’ to map cosmos more extensively than ever before
Composite picture of Sascha Hardegger, Dufour Aerospace; Michael Mayer, RiCopter UAV; a Dufour drone
Large-area laser scanning by drone may cut avalanche risk in the Alps
The ring laser at the Geodetic Observatory Wettzell in Germany
Ring laser precision measurements of Earth’s rotation improve climate models

 

Automotive

A holographic heads-up display in a car and Martin Thom, Head of Business Development at Zeiss Microoptics (Images: ZEISS Microoptics)

‘Car manufacturers want to differentiate themselves, and light has become an important tool to do so’

New replication technology that allows industrial-scale manufacture of holographic projection and lighting systems, as well as transparent cameras, opens up new possibilities for automobile designers, says Zeiss Microoptics’ Martin Thom
A holographic display on a car window
Mass market holograms enhance vehicle functionality

Automotive case studies

Unlike other radar systems, lidar sensors rely solely on light to identify the environment (Credit: Hamamatsu)
Diving into the essence of lidar technology
Image created with a lidar sensor on a moving car
Reflective black paint found to improve visibility with lidar
A 3d scan computer graphic of a Formula 1 driver
How 3D scans helped Formula 1 designers improve drivers’ seats
A TRUMPF employee with a brake disc
High-speed laser metal deposition – the new standard in brake disc manufacturing?

 

Defence

Katherine Kinder, Photonics Engineer at Advanced Navigation, and a fibre-optic gyroscope chip

The jamming-resistant navigation systems enabled by photonic chips

Katherine Kinder, Photonics Engineer at Advanced Navigation, discusses the innovation behind its optical chip-based digital fibre-optic gyroscope technology
A Boreas inertial navigation system
Australia investing in home-grown PICs
Terahertz scanner images from an airport screening lane
Terahertz tech can spot hidden items in motion
Dragonfire test test test
Britain accelerates DragonFire laser weapon
Laser signal and event recording devices
UK Ministry of Defence spin-off detects invisible laser threats to troops

 

Environment & Energy

Brian Pramann and Alberto Conti of BAE SMS and MethaneSAT satellite

MethaneSAT ‘was a long-term vision... to drive change in the world’

Brian Pramann and Alberto Conti from BAE Space & Mission Systems (SMS) tell us about the developement of the MethaneSAT hyperspectral imaging satellite and what it means for engineers to be involved in purposeful science
MethaneSat impression

Hyperspectral satellite leaves methane polluters nowhere to hide

Countries across the globe are pledging to cut methane emissions, but there has been a critical gap in the observation data. Now, actual emissions can be checked against these obligations thanks to a hyperspectral measurement system

Environment & Energy case studies

Hamamatsu Photonics has developed an advanced UV spectrometer,
Tackling water quality challenges with compact uv spectroscopy
LIBS technology can be used in spectrometers to optimise aluminium recycling solutions (Credit: Avantes)
LIBS innovation in aluminium recycling: Towards a sustainable circular economy
Figure 1
Solid-state illumination Light Engines for photoresponsivity characterisation
Optical filters are essential in oil and gas pipeline monitoring sensors
Enhancing oil and gas pipeline monitoring with custom optical filters
The Cooling Photonics team
Infra-red cooling tape helps to dissipate electronics heat
Coherent Leap lasers and high-temperature superconducting tape
Laser manufacturing scales up production of nuclear fusion components
A woman inspecting a photovoltaic solar panel
The first perovskite tandem solar cell production line is coming online

 

Manufacturing

Craig Zuhlke (left), George Gogos (back) and doctoral student Graham Kaufman (front), pose with a Leybold ultra-high vacuum laser surface processing and materials analysis system

Functionalising surfaces with lasers may solve tech's thermal bottleneck

Craig Zuhlke and George Gogos, directors of the Center for Electro-optics and Functionalized Surfaces, explain how their technique could improve heat management in electronics, plus what matters most to them when working with industry partners
Researchers stand around a light table at the Center for Electro-optics and Functionalized Surfaces, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Surfaces modified with ultrafast lasers could replace coatings and paints

Manufacturing case studies

Lasers are well suited for high-precision manufacturing
Assessing compatibility: Can your laser weld these two plastics?
Manufacturing study: Spectroscopy is helping to revolutionise smart manufacturing (Credit: Avantes)
Smart manufacturing: Spectroscopy’s role in in-line process optimisation
An infographic of the 3d printer on the international space station
3D printing metal parts in space for the first time
A Swiss Army knife scissors cutting hydrogel
How a Swiss Army knife (and a confocal microscope) aid microscopic crack analysis
A nanoscale lattice
3D-printed nanoscale metaoptics could enable new imaging functions

 

Optical communications

An artist’s impression of the satellites in action. Inset: Prof Robert Wicks, Head of the Space Technology Laboratory at Northumbria University (Images: Eamon Scullion/Northumbria University)

Laser links in low Earth orbit push optical integration to the limit

Professor Robert Wicks, Head of the Space Technology Laboratory at Northumbria University, explains the optical components in the next generation of free space optical communications between satellites in low earth orbit
North East Space Skills and Technology Centre (NESST) at Northumbria University
UK to launch laser communications satellite prototype

Optical Communications case studies

InGaAs PIN photodiodes are well-suited for a wide range of optical communication applications (Credit: Hamamatsu)
Meeting optical communication demands with InGaAs photodiodes
Free space communication systems
Case Study: Custom optical components enhance space communications
Sylvain Almonacil, Research engineer, Nokia Bell Labs
The photonics behind Nokia’s submarine optical transmission records
From left: Jeremy Sage, Director of Integrated Devices, IonQ; Carmen Palacios-Berraquero, CEO, Nu Quantum; and Noel Goddard; CEO, Qunnect, at Photonics West 2024
Funds flood in to bring quantum computing to life
Rocket launch and close up of glass made in zero gravity
Producing glass in space could overcome gravity-induced defects in optical fibres

 

A 'thank you' to our Frontiers 2024 partners

Photonics Frontiers 2024 cover
A 'Thank You' to our Frontiers 2024 partners

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