SPIE, the International Society for Optics and Photonics, announces its 2025 Awards recipients

The 21 winners represent a formidable range of outstanding achievements in the field of light science and technology.

BELLINGHAM, Wash.-The Awards Committee of SPIE, the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers, today announced the recipients of its prestigious annual awards. Honoring transformative advances in a wide range of professional fields—including medicine, astronomy, lithography, optical metrology, optical design, and community responsibility—the Society’s awards recognize technical achievements as well as service to SPIE and its organizational mission.

SPIE Gold Medal: Halina Rubinsztein-Dunlop
For her innovations in the transfer of optical angle dynamics to matter, the use of sculpted light for laser manipulation at the atomic, nanoscale and microscale, and for providing a powerful probe for biomedicine.

SPIE President’s Award: Bernard Kress
For his outstanding service to photonics, micro-optics, and wearable displays, and for his energetic and creative contributions to SPIE conferences, education, and governance.

SPIE Directors’ Award: Jess Wade
For her public engagement work in STEM, her advocacy for women in physics, and for addressing systemic racial and gender biases.

SPIE Mozi Prize: F. Javier García de Abajo
For his fundamental contributions to confined optical polaritons, their interaction with free electrons, and their applications in nonlinear nanophotonics, optical sensing, and ultrafast processes related to condensed matter systems.

Aden and Marjorie Meinel Award for Technological Achievement at Spie: John Ballato
For his pioneering contributions to the invention, maturation and application of semiconductor optoelectronic fibers.

SPIE AE Conrady Award for Optical Engineering: Jannick P. Rolland
For pioneering contributions to the development and applications of freeform optics.

SPIE Biophotonics Technology Innovator Award: Kirill Larin
For his groundbreaking contributions to the specialty of optical coherence elastography (OCE) that have had a significant impact in the fields of biology, medicine, and biomedical optics.

SPIE Britton Chance Prize in Biomedical Optics: Ruikang Wang
For transformative advances in biophotonics and imaging that have dramatically improved the diagnosis and monitoring of disease, enhancing patients’ quality of life.

SPIE Chandra S. Vikram Prize in Optical Metrology: Katherine Creath
For her lifetime achievement in optical metrology and optical testing, with pioneering contributions to speckle interferometry, phase measurement techniques, interferometer design, and algorithm development.

SPIE Dennis Gabor Prize in Diffractive Optics: Zeev Zalevsky
For his significant contributions to the discipline of diffractive optics and holography, particularly in the area of super-resolution imaging and imaging via scattering media.

SPIE Diversity Awareness Award: Rosario Porras-Aguilar
For her contributions to diversity and awareness in the field of optics and photonics, including her educational initiatives that inspire students around the world or her promotion of inclusion within the scientific community.

SPIE Early Career Achievement Award – Academic Focus: Deep Jariwala
For his pioneering contributions to the understanding of strong interactions between light and matter in quantum-confined excitonic and magnetic semiconductors and for his development of excitonic metamaterials.

SPIE Early Career Achievement Award – Academic Focus: Jenna Mueller
For her innovative strategies to reduce cancer mortality in marginalized communities, including her work on the handheld colposcope, an FDA-approved cervical cancer screening device, and the development of a low-cost laparoscope.

SPIE Early Career Achievement Award – Industrial and Governmental Focus: Frédéric Bouchard
For his work on temporal coding and ultrafast temporal interferometric networks, representing a significant advance in quantum information processing with future applications in quantum computing and networks.

SPIE Frits Zernike Prize in Microlithography: Henry I. Smith
For his seminal contributions to the field of nanolithography, including his invention of phase-shift masks, his demonstrations of liquid immersion lithography, achromatic interference lithography, and plate image area lithography, and his impact as an educator.

SPIE GG Stokes Prize in Optical Polarization: Thomas G. Brown
For his pioneering work on structured polarization and the effects of strain-induced birefringence on beam polarization and intensity, waveguide modes, and point dispersion functions.

SPIE Harold E. Edgerton Prize in High-Speed Optics: Liang Gao
For pioneering advances in ultrafast optical techniques and their transformative applications in multilevel transient imaging.

SPIE Harrison H. Barrett Prize in Medical Imaging: Martin Yaffe
For his pioneering technical advances in medical imaging, particularly in the detection and diagnosis of breast cancer.

SPIE Maria Goeppert Mayer Prize in Photonics: Pavel Cheben
For his pioneering contributions to silicon photonic waveguide devices, including the invention of metamaterial waveguides and the advancement of integrated subwavelength photonics technology.

SPIE María J. Yzuel Teaching Award: Dan Curticapean
For his career-long teaching of optics and photonics with a contagious passion and for his tireless dedication to the SPIE community.

SPIE Rudolf and Hilda Kingslake Prize for Optical Design: Haiyin Sun
In recognition of four decades of dedicated work in optical design, including engineering and measurement work, applications of laser diodes, contributions to optics journals, and service to the optical design community.

The full list of SPIE Society awards and their winners is available here.

About SPIE

SPIE, the International Society for Optics and Photonics, brings together engineers, scientists, students, and professionals to advance light-based science and technology. Founded in 1955, the society connects and engages with its members worldwide through premier conferences and exhibitions, publication of conference proceedings, books and journals in the SPIE Digital Library, and career development opportunities. Over the past five years, we have invested more than $25 million in the international optics community through our advocacy and support activities, including scholarships, training resources, travel grants, endowments, and public policy development. www.spie.org .

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