FPC Exectuvie Director Selected as Judge for 2008 Prism Awards

Jim Pearson, Executive Director of the FPC has been chosen as a judge for the SPIE 2008 Prism Awards:

Laurin Publishing Co. and SPIE have announced the names of the judges selected for the 2008 Prism Awards for Photonics Innovation. Nine awards will be presented on Jan. 28, 2009, at Photonics West in San Jose, and the deadline for applications, which can be found on photonicsprismawards.com, is Sept. 12, 2008,

The independent panel of experts will review and rank all entries, selecting the winners in the categories of Optics; Lasers; Other Light Sources; Detectors, Sensing and Imaging Systems; Analytical, Test and Measurement; Photonics Systems; Photonics Processes; Sustainable/Green Technology; and Life Sciences. The judges are as follows (more detailed bios appear on the website):

• Valerie C. Bolhouse, an industry consultant with several industry awards, formerly developed and launched machine vision and automation solutions for automotive manufacture and assembly at Ford Motor Co. V.
• Michael Bove is head of the Object-Based Media Group at MIT's Media Lab and director of the consumer electronics program CELab. He is a founder of and technical advisor to WatchPoint Media, Inc. and technical advisor to One Laptop Per Child.
• Walter Burgess is vice president of sales and engineering for Power Technology, one of the oldest laser companies in the world. Involved in the photonics industry for 12 years, he has authored numerous articles in the photonics media.
• Jeremy T.K. Chang is managing director of Edmund Optics, China. Chang is founding chairman of Hong Kong Photographic and Optics Manufacturing Association and founding vice chair of Hong Kong Optical Engineering Society.
• Timothy Day is CEO, CTO and chairman of the Board of Daylight Solutions, a molecular detection and imaging company. He was also one of the four founders of New Focus Inc. where he was CTO and senior vice president.
• Anthony J. DeMaria retired in 1994 as assistance director of research for photonics and microelectronics at United Technologies Research Center. DeMaria is currently chief scientist of Coherent's CO2 operation in Bloomfield, CT.
• Donal Denvir is one of the original founders and currently technical director of Andor Technology, in Northern Ireland. He has also been a lecturer in Informatics/Computer Science at the University of Ulster, Coleraine.
• Judy Fennelly is general research engineer with the Air Force Research Laboratory. Fennelly is currently responsible for development and acquisition of five space weather sensors to be flown on the DSX mission in 2010.
• William Gornall recently retired from EXFO Burleigh Products Group as director of technology. He helped lead the growth of Burleigh Instruments for 23 years prior to its acquisition by EXFO in 2000 and was primarily responsible for developing the Burleigh WavemeterTM product line.
• Joseph E. Gortych is president of Opticus IP Law PLLC, an intellectual property law firm based in Sarasota, Fla. that specializes in optics, photonics and semiconductor technologies. He is a registered patent attorney and an active member of SPIE, OSA and IEEE.
• Randy Heyler is senior director of strategic marketing for Newport Corp. He originally was director of the Instruments Products Group and more recently founder and vice president of the Photonics Packaging and Advanced Automation Group.
• Marc D. Himel is currently a senior principal engineer at Tessera North America. Himel has worked with advanced lithography systems, excimer laser-based illumination systems and application of diffractive micro-optics.
• Robert Huang is founder and CEO of Singapore Wavelength Technology Pte Ltd., which specializes in laser optics coating and IR imaging lens assembly. He also founded WaveLab Scientific Pte Ltd which distributes optical design software and training across Asia.
• Ray O. Johnson is senior vice president and CTO of the Lockheed Martin Corp. Johnson also leads the Corporation's Advanced Concepts Organization and the Center for Innovation, a world-class laboratory for collaborative experimentation.
• Kenneth Kaufmann has been with Hamamatsu Corp. for 23 years and is currently vice president of marketing. He has authored numerous articles in the photonics media and has participated in presentations and panel discussions.
• Dr. Lieberman heads the scientific and technological strategy of Intelligent Optical Systems and has been the principal investigator on key projects with the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, NASA, and the U.S. Departments of Energy and Defense.
• Brian Lula has led PI (Physik Instrumente) LP as president for 14 years. He is recognized internationally as an expert in the aesthetic CCD imaging of astronomical objects and has designed and built two astronomical observatories to support this work.
• Gabriel Marcu is senior scientist at Apple Computer, where he is responsible for color calibration/characterization of Apple display based products. Marcu is associate editor for the Journal of SID and for the IEEE Trans on Image Processing Journal.
• Paul McManamon recently retired as chief scientist of the Sensors Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, which develops new sensor technology for the Air Force. He was 2006 president of SPIE and a member of its board for seven years.
• Since 1996, Kazuhiko Oka has been associate professor of the Division of Applied Physics at Hokkaido University. A 2006 G.G. Stokes Award winner, Oka is working in optical polarization physics and engineering.
• Morio Onoe is a professor emeritus of the University of Tokyo and an honorary member of the International Committee of Non-Destructive Testing (NDT). Onoe was a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University in New York from 1956 through 1958.
• James Pearson is currently the director of research and administration at CREOL, The College of Optics and Photonics at the University of Central Florida (UCF). He has formerly been executive director for both ISA and SPIE.
• William Plummer, founder and president of WTP Optics, worked at Johns Hopkins with Prof. John Strong in infrared planetary astronomy. Plummer also worked at Polaroid with Edwin Land and Jim Baker on the SX-70 camera.
• Richard C. Powell is emeritus vice president for research and graduate studies and professor of optical science at the University of Arizona. Powell has authored two textbooks and more than 260 scientific articles. He is a former president of OSA.
• Ryszard S. Romaniuk is professor of electronics engineering at the Warsaw University of Technology (WUT) in Poland. He is also scientific secretary for the Committee of Electronics and Telecommunications at the Polish Academy of Sciences.
• Andreas Tuennermann is director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering (Jena) in 2003. In 1998 he joined the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Germany as a professor and director of the Institute of Applied Physics.
• Cole Van Nice joined Chart Venture Partners in 2006 and currently focuses on investments in photonics, imaging, geospatial, and CBRNE detection (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosive) technologies.
• Alastair Wilson is director of the Photonics Knowledge Transfer Network and was founder of the Scottish Optoelectronics Association. He was involved in establishing the Institute of Photonics at the University of Strathclyde.
• Debbie Wilson is marketing manager of New Focus/Bookham, responsible for strategic product planning and marketing communications. Prior to that, she held product marketing positions at Hewlett Packard, Agilent and LumiLeds.