Edmund Optics is awarding more than $66,000 of its own products to nine non-profit universities in the Americas, Europe, and Asia that are winners in the company’s 2011 higher education programme.
The nine institutions were selected from 40 finalists out of almost 800 applications. The 40 were selected using two criteria: technical merit, which is the researchers’ application of optics in their work; and secondly, the innovative use of optics. After securing more in-depth information about the applicants' work, the winning nine were chosen.
The winners are: Mirko Zimic of the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Peru; Dan Gareau of Rockefeller University; Paul Yates from the University of Virginia; Stefan Sinzinger at Technische Universitat Ilmenau in Germany; James Rice from the University College Dublin in Ireland; Verónica Sáiz at the Polytechnic University of Valencia; Makoto Ohta at Tohoku University in Japan; the Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Hans Riesen from the University of New South Wales in Australia. The value of the EO products provided to the researchers ranges from $2,700 for Sáiz to $10,000 for Zimic.
The winners’ research includes high power semiconductor lasers, optical nanoscopy and nanoimaging tools and a microscope built from stock optical components.
Kirsten Bjork-Jones, Edmund’s global marketing communications director, said: ‘We are in awe of the diversity and calibre of the programs we have reviewed. Each of our grant recipients is a forward-thinking visionary, and we are immensely proud to support their efforts with the award of our Higher Education Grants.’
