C.E.K. Mees Medal
In recognition of interdisciplinary
and international contributions
To Lihong V. Wang, Washington
University in St. Louis, U.S.A.
For seminal contributions to
photoacoustic tomography and
Monte Carlo modeling of photon
transport in biological tissues and
for leadership in the international
biophotonics community
Lihong Wang holds the Gene K.
Beare Distinguished Professorship at Washington University.
Among his contributions to
biophotonics are time-reversed
ultrasonically encoded optical focusing, frequency-swept
ultrasound-modulated optical
tomography, dark-field confocal photoacoustic microscopy
(PAM), optical-resolution PAM,
photoacoustic Doppler sensing,
photoacoustic reporter gene
imaging, microwave-induced
thermoacoustic tomography,
sonoluminescence tomography,
Mueller-matrix optical coherence tomography and optical
coherence computed tomography. PAM broke through the
long-standing diffusion limit
of conventional optical microscopy and provides functional
and molecular imaging. Wang’s
Monte Carlo model of photon
transport in scattering media is
used worldwide.
He has served as principal investigator on 27 grants
totaling more than $30 million,
published more than 250 peer-reviewed journal articles and
delivered more than 270 invited
talks. Wang’s book on biomedical optics won OSA’s Joseph W.
Goodman Book Writing Award.
He also edited the first book on
photoacoustic tomography. Wang
serves as the editor-in-chief for
the Journal of Biomedical Optics
and is a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and
Biomedical Engineering, IEEE,
OSA and SPIE.
William F. Meggers Award
In recognition of outstanding
work in spectroscopy
To Steven T. Cundiff,
JILA, NIST and the University
of Colorado, U.S.A.
For contributions to the field
of ultrafast spectroscopy of
semiconductors, including
multidimensional Fourier transform
techniques, and for contributions to
the development of femtosecond
frequency comb technology
Steven Cundiff is a Fellow of
JILA, a joint institute between
the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
and the University of Colorado.
He is professor adjoint at the
University of Colorado and a
physicist in the NIST Quantum
Physics Division. Cundiff’s research interests are in the area of
ultrafast optics. During the last
decade, he has worked on the
development and understanding of optical frequency combs
and their applications. He has
also worked on implementing multidimensional Fourier
transform spectroscopy in the
near-infrared to study electronic
excitations in semiconductor
nanostructures. He is currently
working to extend this spectroscopic technique to study other
materials and systems.
Cundiff received his Ph.D.
in applied physics from the
University of Michigan in 1992.
He was a postdoctoral scientist
at the University of Marburg,
Germany, and Bell Labs before
joining JILA in 1997.
David Richardson Medal
In recognition of contributions to
optical engineering, primarily in the
commercial and industrial sector
To Ishwar D. Aggarwal and
Jas Sanghera, Naval Research
Laboratory, U.S.A.
For pioneering work leading to the
development of infrared fiber and
transparent ceramics
As head of the Optical Materials
Branch at the Naval Research
Labs (NRL) Aggarwal manages
and directs research and development of numerous optical materials including infrared fibers, thin
film waveguides, photovoltaics,
glasses, crystals, glass-ceramics,
and polycrystalline ceramic
windows, domes, lasers and sensors. His own work focuses on
the research and development of
optical fibers, fiber lasers chemical
sensors, transparent ceramics and
laser gain ceramics. Previously,
Aggarwal worked at Lasertron as
well as Corning where he invented
new glass compositions for fibers.
Aggarwal has received numerous awards including the 1998
Sigma Xi Award, several NRL
Publication and Patent Awards
and the Federal Laboratory
Consortium (FLC) National
Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer. He has transitioned
four technologies to industry,
published more than 250 papers
and more than 60 patents. Aggarwal received his Ph.D. from the
Catholic University of America.
Sanghera is currently section
head of optical materials at NRL
and manages and technically
guides research and development
of numerous optical materials for a wide range of defense
department applications. These
include optical fibers, thin film
waveguides and photovoltaics,
glasses, crystals, glass-ceramics, and polycrystalline ceramic windows,
domes and lasers.
Sanghera received
a Ph.D. from Imperial College London
before holding a
postdoctoral position
at UCLA. His doctoral
research focused on
the development of novel
semiconducting glass ceramics
via spinodal decomposition. During his time at UCLA Sanghera
studied the structure/property
relationship of infrared transmitting halide and chalcogenide
glasses. He has received numerous awards including the 2009
Sigma Xi Award for Applied
Science, Publication and Patent
Awards, and the FLC National
Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer. He has transitioned
four technologies to industry,
published over 200 papers and
has more than 50 patents.
Charles H. Townes Award
In recognition of outstanding contributions to quantum electronics
To Wilson Sibbett,
University of St. Andrews, U.K.
For pioneering breakthroughs in
the science and technology of
ultrashort optical pulses including
generation, measurement and the
development of practical sources
for applications in photophysics,
photochemistry, photomedicine,
engineering and communications
Wilson Sibbett is the Wardlaw
Professor of Physics in the School
of Physics & Astronomy at the
University of St. Andrews. His
responsibilities have included
being head of school (1985-1994),
director of research (1994-2003)
