FROM THE ICO GOLDEN BOOK

The ICO Award Winners : ICO Prize

The ICO Prize has been established in 1982 and is presented annually to a person who has made a noteworthy contribution to Optics before reaching the age of 40. Every year, the ICO Prize Committee issues a call for nominations that is published in the ICO Newsletter. The recipients are listed below (the 1988 Prize was changed to 1989 in order to coincide with the year of the award).

1982: Antoine Labeyrie, France

A. Labeyrie graduated from Ecole Supérieure d'Optique and Université de Paris-Sud, Orsay. A Directeur de Recherche at Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Géodynamiques, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and a membre correspondant of the French Academy of Sciences, he has been recognized for his pioneering work on astronomical imaging beyond the atmospheric turbulence and telescope mirror quality limited resolution, and in particular his invention of speckle interferometry.

1983: James R. Fienup, USA

A graduate of Stanford University, J.R. Fienup is a research scientist with ERIM, Ann Arbor. The ICO Prize recognized his contribution to the field of image restoration, phase retrieval from amplitude data, and image estimation, including in particular iterative estimation algorithms applied to optical imaging, coherence, and remote sensing.

1984: J. Christopher Dainty, UK

J.C. Dainty received his doctorate from Imperial College in 1972. In 1984 he was appointed the Pilkington Professor of Applied Physics at Imperial College. His contributions span a period of more than 15 years. His book &laqno; Image Science », written jointly with R. Shaw, is regarded as the standard treatise on the subject. He edited the book &laqno; Laser Speckle and Related Phenomena, the primary reference in this field. More recently his research was centered on astronomical speckle imaging, quantum-limited imaging, and optical information processing.

1985: Sergei I. Stepanov, USSR

S.I. Stepanov graduated from the M.I. Kalinin Polytechnical Institute in Leningrad. A Candidate in Physical-Mathematical Sciences, he is a senior research physicist at the A.F. Ioffe Physical Technical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in Leningrad. The subject of his thesis was light diffraction in anisotropic media. His present interest relate to dynamic holography, the physics of photorefractive crystals, and diffraction phenomena in volume structures.

1986: Kensuke Ikeda, Japan

A graduate of Kyoto University where he is presently a Professor in the Research Institute for Fundamental Physics, K. Ikeda has made outstanding contributions to quantum dynamics, including in particular quantum chaos, to the nonlinear dynamics of optical systems, and to turbulence.

1987: Alain Aspect, France

A. Aspect graduated from Ecole Normale Supérieure de l'Enseignement Technique and Université de Paris-Sud. A physicist at Ecole Normale Supérieure, he was selected for his work on the confirmation by optical means of the violation of Bell's inequalities, which provides support for the traditional interpretation of Quantum Mechanics and demonstrates that no local, deterministic hidden variable theory can apply.

1989: Demetri Psaltis, USA and Greece

A graduate of Carnegie-Mellon University and an Associate Professor in the Electrical Department of the California Institute of Technology, was awarded the prize for his contributions to optical information processing, holography, pattern recognition, neural networks, optical memories and optical devices.

1990: Rosario Martinez-Herrero, Spain

A professor in the Department of Optics at Universidad Complutense in Madrid, Herrero contributed to the new expansions for the coherence functions of partially coherent and partially polarized electromagnetic fields, the proof that planar sources of different states of coherence can generate identical output fields, and generalizations of the basic radiometric concept of radiance to fields generated by two-dimensional stationary partially coherent sources.

1991: David A.B. Miller, UK and USA

A graduate of St Andrews and Heriot-Watt Universities in Scotland, D.A.B. Miller moved to AT&T Bell Laboratories to become the head of the Photonics Switching Device Research Department. Miller's name is related to the quantum confined Stark effect, which he not only discovered and investigated both theoretially and experimentally , but also exploited for new applications to optical devices. Well known among those is the self-electro-optical effect device (SEED).

1992: Wolfgang Peter Schleich, Germany

W.P. Schleich graduated from the University of Munich and is a professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Ulm. He was recognized for his work on the nonclassical states of light and the determination of the phase of nonclassical radiation. He contributed to the description of phenomenon of squeezing in terms of interference in phase space and to the discovery of oscillations in the photon statistics of the squeezed states.

1993: Aleksander K. Rebane, Estonia and Switzerland

A graduate of the University of Tartu and a candidate of science from the Institute of Physics of the Estonian Academy of Science, A.K. Rebane moved to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich to become a senior research assistant. Rebane has contributed to understanding the properties of frequency multiplexed holograms, through the causality principle, and to the investigation of the properties of referenceless time-and-space holograms.

1994: Emmanuel Desurvire, France and USA

E. Desurvire graduated from Universities of Paris VI and Nice. He worked at Stanford University, AT Bell Laboratories and Columbia University. He has been a researcher with Alcatel Alsthom in Marcoussis since 1993. He is being recognized for his work on active optical fibers and devices and in particular his seminal contributions to erbium-doped fiber amplifiers.

1995: Tony F. Heinz, USA

A graduate of Stanford University and University of California, Berkeley, T.F. Heinz worked with the IBM Research Division and joined Columbia university as a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Physics in 1995. He has played a pivotal role in the development and application of an entirely new area of laser spectroscopic studies for surface and interface analysis, introducing nonlinear and time-resolved optical techniques, such as surface second order harmonic generation, that have been widely adopted in laboratories worldwide.

1996: Vladimir Buzek, Slovakia

A graduate of Comenius University, Bratislava, the Moscow State University and the Joint Institute Nuclear Research in Dubna, V. Buzek is a research professor at the Slovak Academy of Sciences and at Comenius University. He has been recognized for his work on squeezing and other non-effects in photon statistics, atom-field interactions in microcavities and other theoretical contributions to the development of quantum optics.

1997: Andrew M. Weiner, USA

A graduate of MIT, Prof. Weiner assumed his current position as Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University in 1992. Professor Weiner's pioneering contributions make possible linear filtering, shaping, and analog processing of optical signals in the femtosecond time domain, and enable a range of sophisticated new applications for ultrashort light pulses.

1998: David Mendlovic, Israel and Haldun Ozaktas, Turkey

Mendlovic graduated from Tel-Aviv University and Özaktas from Middle East Technical University, Ankara. They received the award in recognition of their contributions to several areas of optical information processing, and particularly for their joint efforts in the development of the fractional Fourier transform and its application.

1999: Hugo Thienpont, Belgium

A graduate of Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) , H. Thienpont is the research director of the « laboratory for photonics » at the VUB and the promoter of research projects for the Flemish Foundation for Scientific Research (FWO), the Flemish Institute for Science and Technology (IWT), the Belgian Inter-University Excellence Centers (IUAP) and the European Community Microelectronics Advanced Research Initiatives (EC-MEL-ARI). He has been recognized for his contributions to photonics, optical computing and parallel optics.

2000: Stefan W. Hell, Germany

A graduate of University of Heidelbeirg, S.W. Hell joined the Max-Planck-Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen to establish an independent research group. He has been awarded in recognition of his innovative work on increasing resolution in far field optical microscopy.

2001: Nabeel A. Riza, Pakistan and USA

A graduate of Illinois Institute of Technology and Caltech, Riza joined CREOL in1995 where is currently Professor and Head of the Photonic Information Processing Systems Laboratory. Over a decade of research, Nabeel A. Riza is responsible for the invention of several pioneering optical beam control structures that have strongly impacted fields such as array sensor controls, interferometry, signal processing, fiber-optic switching and controls, and optical scanning.

2002: Prize not accorded

2003: Benjamin J. Eggleton, Australia

A Ph.D in Physics from the University of Sydney in 1996, Prof. Eggleton is currently a Federation Fellow, Professor of Physics and the Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Ultrahigh-bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS). His main research achievements have beed developed in nonlinear optics, photonic bandgap structures, optical fiber gratings, air-silica microstructured fibers, tunable optical fiber devices, microfluidics, dispersion compensation techniques, Raman amplification and optical regeneration.

2004: Ashok V. Krishnamoorthy, USA and India

He obtained the BS in Engineering (with honors) from CALTECH in 1986. The MS in Electrical Engineering/Optics from University of Southern California in 1988 and the PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of California San Diego (UCSD) in 1993. He made noteworthy contributions in the area of opto-electronic integrated circuits. Specifically, for developing a method where arrays of optical devices, such as detectors, modulators, and vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) are attached to CMOS chips. Results have played a key role in several industry milestones

2005: Immanuel Bloch, Germany

Immanuel Bloch studied physics at the University of Bonn, with a visit later Stanford University. He received his PhD from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich for his work on atom lasers and phase coherence properties of atomic Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in the group of Theodor W. Hänsch (Nobel Prize 2005 shared with John Hall and Roy Glauber). Subsequently, he became junior group leader for ultracold quantum gases at the Max-Planck-Institute for Quantum Optics, Garching and the Ludwig-Maximilians University in the same group. Since October 2003, at just 31 years of age, he was appointed to full professorship of physics (C4) at the Johannes Gutenberg-University in Mainz, Germany. Immanuel Bloch has become the first to crack the BEC wave and regularly arrange several hundred of these special atoms into a glowing grid or optical lattice, with future potential applications in quantum computing.

2006 Hideyuki Sotobayashi, Japan

Hideyuki Sotobayashi received his PhD in electrical engineering at the University of Tokyo. He is Senior scientist at the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Japan.The award citation reads: "The ICO Prize for the year 2006 is given to Dr. Hideyuki Sotobayashi in recognition of his outstanding contributions in the areas of optics communications, optical fiber technologies and new photonic devices. These achievements were done as a researcher younger than 40 years old (as per December 31, 2006)".

2007 Susana Marcos,Spain

Susana Marcos (Salamanca, Spain, 1970) received her MS (1992) and PhD (1996) degrees in Physics from the University of Salamanca (Spain). She is Professor of Research at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Madrid, Spain. The award citation reads: "The ICO Prize for the year 2007 is given to Prof. Susana Marcos in recognition of her outstanding contributions in the areas of visual optics and biophotonics. These achievements were done as a researcher younger than 40 years old".

2008 Zeev Zalevsky,Israel

Z. Zalevsky was born in Russia and received his BSc and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from Tel-Aviv University in Israel. He is currently a professor of electro-optics in the school of engineering at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. Zalevsky was recognized for "his achievements and significant contribution in the field of optical super resolution, in particular for his work in theoretical and experimental definition of various approaches for exceeding Abbe's classical limit of resolution."

2009 Rajesh Menon, USA

Rajesh Menon has a BEng from the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He graduated with the S.M (2000) and Ph.D (2003) degrees from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. In addition, he served as the Chief Technology Officer of LumArray, Inc., a company he co-founded with colleagues at MIT. Dr. Rajesh Menon, became in 2009 a Utah Science, Technology and Research (USTAR) assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Utah and an affiliate of the Research Laboratory of Electronics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was awarded in recognition of his "breakthrough achievement in nanolithography, in particular for his invention and development of the absorbance modulation method for a wider range of nanophotonic applications".

2010 Reinhard Kienberger, Germany

Reinhard Kienberger was born in Graz, Austria, in 1971. He studied electronic engineering at the Technische Universität, Vienna, where he obtained his Diploma in Physics in 1998, and his PhD in Physics working in the laboratory of Prof. Ferenc Krausz. In 2005 Kienberger moved to the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Germany, became leader of a Max Planck Junior Research Group and received the Sofja Kovalevskaja Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. In 2008 he became professor of experimental physics at the Physics Department of the Technische Universität München, Garching, Germany. He received the ICO Prize in recognition of his "breakthrough work in attosecond science and its applications in metrology and spectroscopy"

2011 Nicholas X. Fang, USA

Nicholas X. Fang was born in Putian, China, in 1974. He obtained his M. S. (1998), and BS (1996) in Physics at the Nanjing University in China, and his Ph. D.degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2004. In 2004, Fang joined the University of Illinois (UIUC) as an assistant professor. Fang is recipient of the NSF Career Award (2009); the MIT Technology Review Magazine's 35 Young Innovators Award (2008); and the ASME Pi Tau Sigma Gold Medal Award (2006). In 2011 Fang moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in Cambridge, USA, as associate professor of mechanical engineering and d'Arbeloff Career Development Chair. He was awarded the ICO Prize "for his pioneering work in optical metamaterials, optical superlenses and nanofocusing."

The ICO Award Winners : IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in Optics

In 2005 IUPAP created the Young Scientist Prizes for its Commissions. The International Commission of Optics (ICO), as an Affiliated Commission of IUPAP, decided in 2008 to adopt the IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in Optics. The prize is awarded annually through ICO to a scientist who has made noteworthy contributions to applied optics and photonics during a maximum of 8 years of research experience after having earned a PhD degree. The recipients are listed below.

2009 Eleftherios Goulielmakis, Germany

The first recipient of the IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in Optics is Eleftherios Goulielmakis. Goulielmakis studied physics at the University of Crete, in Greece. He received his PhD from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany, in 2005. At present he is a scientist in the Max Planck Institute's Division of Attosecond Physics, as well as an adjunct professor of physics at Pohang University of Science and Technology in South Korea. In 2007 he received the Foteinos Prize of the Academy of Athens. He received the IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in recognition of his "outstanding contributions in attosecond physics, particularly for the generation of attosecond pulses and their application for the direct measurement of light waves".

2010 Shuang Zhang, United Kingdom

Shuang Zhang was born in 1975 in China, where he received his BSc. and MSc. in Physics from the Jilin University. He obtained a second MSc. in Physics from the Northeastern University in USA in 1999, and his PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of New Mexico, USA, in 2005. After holding postdoctoral positions at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, USA, and at the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center of the University of California, USA, he joined in 2010 the School of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. He was awarded "for his outstanding contributions in metamaterials and plasmonics, particularly for the first demonstration of the double-fishnet structure and for excellent achievements in realization of the first three-dimensional optical negative-index metamaterials"

2011 Goëry Genty, Finland

Goëry Genty was born in Bordeaux, France, 1975. He received his M.Sc. in Optics in 1998 from Ecole Supérieur d'Optique (Institute of Optics Graduate School) and his PhD degree from the Helsinki University of Technology, Finland, in 2004. He joined the Tampere University of Technology, Finland, in 2008, where he leads a research group on ultrafast pulse dynamics and applications. Dr. Genty was awarded the IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in Optics 2011 "for his outstanding contributions in pulse propagation and ultra-fast dynamics in nonlinear optical fibers, particularly his groundbreaking results on supercontinuum generation and nonlinear instabilities."

The ICO Award Winners : ICO Galileo Galilei Award

The ICO Galileo Galilei Award has been established in 1994 and is presented annually to a person has made outstanding contributions to the field of Optics in countries where the development of Optical Technology is significantly below average, or where difficult economic or social conditions are encountered, and access to scientific and technical facilities or sources of information is lacking. The recipients are listed below.

1994: Ion N. Mihailescu, Romania

A graduate of the Central Institute of Physics in Buchares and a senior scientist at the Institute of Atomic Physics and a professor at Bucharest University, I.N. Mihailescu is recognised for his studies of the nanoscale surface modifications by laser irradiation, including pulsed laser deposition of compounds in vacuum or in chemical reactive gases.

1995: Rajpal S. Sirohi, India

R.S. Sirohi graduated from Agra University and from the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi and is a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras. He has conducted extensive research work in the areas of optical metrology and optical testing and has introduced techniques for the measurement of displacement, angles and contours by optical means.

1996: Daniel Malacara, Mexico

D. Malacara graduated from the National University of Mexico and from the University of Rochester, N.Y., USA. A scientist with Centro de Investigaciones en Optica, Leon, Gto., he contributed to the foundation of several Optics Research centers in Mexico and of the Mexican Academy of Optics. A designer and constructer of optical instruments, including telescopes, he is famous for his book on « laqno; Optical Shop Testing », which has been translated in many languages.

1997: Natalyia D. Kundikova, Russia

A graduate of Moscow University and a senior scientist of the Joint Nonlinear Optics Laboratory, Electrophysics Institute of Ural Branch of Russian Academy of Science, N.D. Kundikova is also the head of the Optis and Spectroscopy Department at the Chelyabinsk University. She has been recognized for her theorical achievements related to the interaction between light propagation and polarization, as well as their experimental demonstration.

1998: Ajoy K. Ghatak, India

A graduate of Delhi University and from Cornell University, A.K. Ghatak is a research professor at the physics department of the Indian Institute of Technology. He has been recognized for his important research contributions in developing new methods for the analysis of fiber and integrated optic waveguides, quantum well structures, and the analysis of graded index optical imaging systems.

1999: Mario Garavaglia, Argentina

A graduate of Universidad Nacional de la Planta, Mario Garavaglia is the founder of CioP (Centro de Investigaciones de Opticas) and has been recognized for his scientific contributions in the fields of lasers, spectroscopy, interferometry, and holography, as well as their applications to industry, medicine and biology and for his promotion of optics education an research in South America.

2000: Vladimir P. Lukin, Russia

A graduate of Tomsk State University (TSU) and director of the Wave Propagation Division of IAO (Institute of Atmospheric Optics of the Russian Academy of Sciences), Vladimir P. Lukin has been recognized for his scientific contributions on light propagation through turbulent media and on adaptive optics, as well as their applications.

2001: Kehar Singh, India

A graduate of Agra University and from the Indian Institute of Technology, K. Singh of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, has been recognized for his scientific contributions in the areas of statistical and information optics and for his contributions in education in optics in India.

2002: Rashid Ganeev, Uzbekistan

A graduate in Engineering Physics from Tashkent Polytechnic Institute and Ph.D. degree in Physics and Mathematics from the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan. Rashid Ganeev has been recognized for his scientific contributions, both theoretical and experimental, for developing new methods for nonlinear frequency conversion of high power laser radiation in non linear crystals and characterization of nonlinear optical properties of metal, semiconductor and polymer media.

2003: Cid Bartolomeu de Araujo, Brazil

A graduate of the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro and Post-Doctorate in Harvard University, Cid B. de Araujo has been recognized from his scientific contributions in nonlinear optics, lasers and applications, multiphonic processes, parametric generation, spectroscopy of special glasses and organic materials as well as in photonics and integrated optoelectronic.

2004: Milivoj Belic, Serbia and Montenegro and Caesar Saloma, Phillipines

Milivoj Belic is a professor of optics at the Institute of Physics, Belgrade. The research interests of Prof. Belic centered on nonlinear optics and nonlinear dynamics of optical systems. His work in nonlinear optics was concerned with the wave mixing in photorefractive media, optical computing, and spatial solitons. His most important contribution is the establishment and maintenance of strong research group in Belgrade, working under adverse conditions, yet producing outstanding research results.

Caesar Saloma is a professor of physics at the National Institute of Physics of the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines. He has introduced in the Phillipines investigations on the use of the laser fluorescence confocal microscopy in imaging optically-thick biological samples then conforming a pioneering team. He has investigated as well on the efficiency of laser confocal microscopy and multi-photon excitation microscopy for imaging applications in highly-scattering media.

2005 Valentin Ionel Vlad, Romania

Doctor Eng. V. I. Vlad graduated at the Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest. He is Professor of physics at the University of Bucharest and chief of the Laboratory for Non-linear and Information Optics at the Institute of Atomic Physics, Bucharest, Romania He has done outstanding contributions to ultra-fast optical phase conjugation, wave mixing in photorefractive crystals (PRC) and pm-amplitude vibration measurements, and organized the series of conferences "ROMOPTO" in Romania.

2006 Mohammed M Shabat, Palestine.

M. M. Shabat received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Salford, U.K. He is Professor of physics at the Islamic University of Gaza, Palestine. The citation of the award reads: "For his outstanding scientific contributions in the area of theoretical and electromagnetic optics, which were accomplished under comparative unfavorable circumstances as defined on the award call and for his relevant work for the organization of optics and photonics activities in Palestine".

2007 Oleg V. Angelski, Ukraine

Prof. Angelsky is presently a Professor of the Correlation Optics Department of the Chernivtsi University. He is a PhD from the Institute of Physics, Kiev, Ukraine. The citation of his award reads: "For his outstanding contributions in the field of optical correlation, speckle interferometry and holography in diffuse optical fields achieved under comparatively unfavorable conditions".

2008 Joewono Widjaja,Thailand

J. Widjaja is Professor at the Suranaree University of Technology, Thailand. He obtained his M. Eng. and Dr. Eng. in Electronics Engineering from the Hokkaido University; Sapporo, Japan. The citation reads: "For his outstanding contributions in wavelet transform based signal processing, speckle metrology, holography, join transform correlator, speckle and Internet photonic routing. The Committee was considering as well the comparative unfavorable circumstances since the candidate has done all activities in a developing country (as defined by UN)".

2009 Marat S. Soskin, Ukraine, Dumitru Mihalache, Romania

Marat S. Soskin graduated from Kyiv Taras Shevchenko National University in 1952 and immediately after graduation was appointed head of the Spectral Industrial Laboratory in Donetsk (Ukraine). After four years there he began a PhD - and life-long career - at the Institute of Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NAS), where he has led the Department of Optical Quantum Electronics since 1966. He was awarded half of the 2009 Galileo Galilei Award "for his achievements in the fields of tunable lasers, dynamic holography, and linear and nonlinear singular optics".

Dumitru Mihalache graduated from the Faculty of Physics, Bucharest University, in 1971, and the Faculty of Mathematics, Bucharest University, in 1977. He is currently a Research Professor at Horia Hulubei National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Bucharest, Romania. In recognition of his contributions made under comparatively unfavorable circumstances, the award committee granted Prof. Mihalache half of the 2009 Galileo Galilei Award "for his achievements in the field of theoretical nonlinear optics".

2010 Mohammad Taghi Tavassoly,Iran

Mohammad Taghi Tavassoly was born in Hamadan, Iran, in 1942. He received his BSc and MSc in physics in 1966 and 1968 from the University of Tehran. He received his PhD from London University (RHC) in 1977. Back home he joined the University of Teheran and founded the optics committee that developed later into the Optics and Photonics Society of Iran. After the war, in 1988, he helped establish research laboratories in optics at his university and at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences (IASBS) in Zanjan. Tavassoly was awarded his prize for "his contribution to teaching optics in Iran, conducting original research, and maintaining links between the academic communities active in optics in Iran and the rest of the world".

2011 Jan Peřina, Czech Republic

Jan Peřina was born in Mestec Králové, Czech Republic. He received his Doctor of Natural Sciences and PhD degrees from Palacký University in 1966 and 1967, respectively and his degree of Doctor of Sciences from Charles University in Prague in 1984. He is professor of quantum electronics and optics at the Department of Optics, Palacký University, Olomouc, Czech Republic. His research papers and books, especially the original Coherence of Light (published 1972), have served as a major source of information and educational inspiration for generations of scientists and students. Among other distinctions, he has received the State Award of the Czech Republic for Merit. He was awarded "for his impressive results on quantum optics and coherence regarding non-classical states achieved under difficult circumstances."

The ICO Award Winners : ICO/ICTP Gallieno Denardo Award

2000: Arbab Ali Khan, Pakistan

First winner of the ICO/ICTP award. Dr. Khan did his M. Sc., in the field of electronics, M. Phil., in optical computing by classical methods and his Ph.D. work in quantum computing. He received all his degrees from Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad, Pakistan, where he is now working as assistant professor. He was awarded in recognition for his work at an international level in optical computing and for having contributed to co-operation projects between the academic and the industrial sector in his country.

2001: Arashmid Nahal and Fernando Perez Quintian, Argentina

Arashmid Nahal received his B.Sc. degree in Applied Physics from the University of Tehran, Iran, in 1989, his M.SC. degree in Optics and Spectroscopy from Kharkov State University, Ukraine, in 1996, and his Ph.D. degree in Optics and Laser Physics from the same university in 1999. He was awarded in recognition of his work on the influence of the polarization on radiation-induced formation of spontaneous periodic structures in thin photosensitive films.

Fernando Perez Quintián received his MS degree and his PhD. in physics from the Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1995 and 2000 respectively. He was awarded in recognition of his work in the field of metrology of rough surfaces using light scattering and speckle techniques. He has also worked on laser ultrasonics and interferometry.

2002: Alphan Sennaroglu, Turkey

Alphan Sennaroglu received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University in 1988, 1990, and 1994, respectively. In 1997, he obtained the "Doçent" degree from the Higher Education Council of Turkey. In 2002 he was Associate Professor of Physics and Electrical Engineering at Koç University, in Istanbul, Turkey. A. Sennaroglu's was awarded in recognition of his work on the development of solid-state lasers, spectroscopic investigation of new laser media, experimental and theoretical study of thermal effects, ultrashort pulse generation, and nonlinear optics, and for his activities of promotion of optics in his country.

2003: Robert Szipöcs

A graduate of Technische University of Budapest and a reseacher at the Research Institute for Solid State Physics and Optics in Budapest, R. Szipöcs's research focuses on femtosecond nonlinear pulse propagation in microstructure (photonic crystal) optical fibers, femtosecond time resolved spectroscopy and two-photon microscopy.

2004: Imrana Ashraf Zahid, Pakistan, and Revati Nitin Kulkarni, India

Dr. Imrana Ashraf Zahid from Quaid-I-Azam University (Pakistan) and Dr. Revati Nitin Kulkarni from the International Institute of Information Technology, Pune (India), both researchers were sharing this 2004 prize. Dr. Asharaf was awarded for her contributions in the field of Quantum and Atom Optics and Lasers, and Dr. Kulkarni was awarded for her contributions in the field of Adaptive Optics. Both scientists are young researchers who have been pursuing their carriers in a developing country as defined by UN.

2005: Sarun Sumriddetchkajorn, Thailand

A researcher from the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), Pathumthani, Thailand's Ministry of Science and Technology.He made his PhD at CREOL, Florida, USA.The main subject of his research was multiwavelength fiber-optic switch array retro reflective structures, under both theoretical and experimental studies to analyze optical crosstalk level. He has developed an optical touch switch based on total internal reflection (TIR) to be used by disable persons.

2006 Héctor Manuel Moya-Cessa, Mexico.

H. Moya-Cessa did his MSc in the Centro de Investigaciones en Optica, and his PhD at Imperial College in London, England. He is a researcher at the Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Optica y Electrónica (INAOE), in Puebla, México. He was awarded in recognition of his outstanding research activities on the foundation of Quantum Optics and for his involvement in organizational activities aimed at diffusing the interest on Quantum Optics in Latin America

2007 Svetlana Boriskina,Ukraine

Svetlana Boriskina received the M.Sc. (hons.) and Ph.D. degrees in Radio-physics from V. Karazin Kharkov National University (KNU), Kharkov, Ukraine, institution where she works as a Senior research scientist. The citation of the Prize reads: "The prize is assigned for her original work in the development of numerical modeling techniques for optoelectronic devices, micro-optical resonators, dielectric lenses and waveguides and for her active commitment aimed at the diffusion of research in optics in Ukraine".

2008 Mourad Zghal, Tunisia

Mourad Zghal received his MSc and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from the National Engineering School of Tunis. He is a faculty member from the Higher School of Communications of Tunisia. The citation of Zghal's award reads: "The prize is assigned for his original work in the development of numerical modeling techniques for photonic crystal fibres, microstructured optical fibres, polarization, and for his active commitment aimed at the diffusion of research in optics in Africa."

2009 Saifollah Rasouli, Iran

Saifollah Rasouli is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the Physics Department of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences (IASBS) in Iran, the institution that granted his MSc and PhD degrees in Physics with specialization in Optics. The citation of Rasouli's award reads: "The prize is assigned for his creative implementation of Moirè interferometry to fiber optics, optical metrology, and atmospheric optics, including measurements of turbulence parameters, and possible applications to wavefront distortion compensation in adaptive optics systems".

2010 Cleber Mendonça, Brazil

Cleber Mendonça received his PhD in physics in 2000 from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Upon completing his doctorate he spent seven months as a postdoc at the College of Optics and Photonics (CREOL) in Florida. In July 2001 he was hired as a faculty member at the University of São Paulo (Institute of Physics of Sao Carlos). The prize was awarded to C. Mendonça "for the development of novel methods and procedures of nonlinear optics, in particular the use of femtosecond pulses and femtosecond laser micro-fabrication in polymers for investigating nonlinear optical properties of organic compounds, and for establishing effective interdisciplinary collaborations within Brazil".

2011 Iván Moreno, Mexico, and Ryan Balili, Philippines

Ivan Moreno obtained his Bachelor Degree in Physical Engineering in 1998 from the Tecnológico de Monterrey, in México, and his PhD in 2003 at the Centro de Investigaciones en Optica (CIO) in León, México. He is member of the Physics Faculty at the University of Zacatecas in México. During the last seven years, Dr. Moreno has consolidated an original research program in radiometry and photometry of light-emitting diode-based illumination in Mexico. He was awarded "for valuable contributions to optics in the field of radiometry and photometry of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that have significantly impacted the design of systems that use such LEDs."

Ryan Balili received his PhD degree in 2009 at the University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, USA. He was thereafter reinstated as Assistant Professor in Iligan Institute of Technology, Mindanao State University. He was named a "Young Researcher Awardee" by Physica Status Solidi in 2006. He was also given the Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in 2007 for excelling in research and also in academics. He was awarded the ICO/ICTP Gallieno Denardo Award for his "pioneering work in the trapping and condensation of polaritons, providing an important new system in which quantum coherence can be studied, and having potential applications in quantum information processing."