Awards & Honors
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Awards & Honors
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Celebrating distinguished achievements and contributions.
Award | News
Please Note: Awards/Medals Nomination Deadline Now 1 September
Beginning in 2026, the nomination deadline for most awards/medals is 1 September. Please visit the Nominator's Guide for information about specific awards/medals. Reference letters are due 10 September.
Award | News Release
Optica names recipients of 2026 Awards and Medals
Optica, Advancing Optics and Photonics Worldwide, is pleased to announce the recipients of several of its 2026 awards and medals. These awards highlight outstanding technical, research, educational, business, leadership and service accomplishments.
“The 2026 Optica award and medal recipients are celebrated for their outstanding contributions. We thank and congratulate them for advancing our field, mentoring the next generation, and serving our global community,” said Gisele Bennett, Optica's 2026 President. “In addition, I’d like to thank the dedicated selection committee volunteers, nominators, and references who make this program possible.”
Award | News Release
Tony Heinz Receives the 2026 Frederic Ives Medal/Jarus W. Quinn Prize
Optica, Advancing Optics and Photonics Worldwide,is pleased to announce that Tony F. Heinz, Stanford University and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, USA has been named the recipient of the 2026 Frederic Ives Medal/Jarus W. Quinn Prize recipient. Heinz is recognized for pioneering discoveries in photon science, outstanding leadership, and a deep commitment to education.
“Tony Heinz’s groundbreaking research opened a new branch of optics, helping us to understand surfaces, interfaces, and nanoscale materials,” said Gisele Bennett, Optica's 2026 President. “But his impact has reached even farther through his visionary leadership, mentorship, and service to the optics community. It is an honor to celebrate his lasting contributions to our field.”
Award | News Release
Graham Trevor Reed Receives 2026 John Tyndall Award
Optica and the IEEE Photonics Society have named Professor Graham Trevor Reed, University of Southampton, UK the 2026 John Tyndall Award recipient. Reed is recognized for ground-breaking contributions to silicon photonics, notably through pioneering research, advocacy, and the establishment of a widely accessible foundry platform.
“Graham Reed has been a leader in the field of silicon photonics since its inception, literally writing the book on the subject in 2004,” said James Kafka, Optica 2025 President. “His innovations have benefited everything from communications and healthcare to environmental monitoring, advanced computing, and security.” The award, one of the top honors in the fiber optics community, is named for John Tyndall, a 19th-century scientist who was the first to demonstrate the phenomenon of total internal reflection. It recognizes an individual who has made pioneering, highly significant, or continuing technical or leadership contributions to fiber optic technology.
Award | News Release
Antoine Browaeys Named 2026 Herbert Walther Award Recipient
Optica and the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft (DPG) have named Antoine Browaeys, Institut d'Optique, CNRS, France, the recipient of the 2026 Herbert Walther Award. He is recognized for the realization of arrays of single neutral atoms held in optical tweezers as a platform for exquisitely controlled quantum simulation of many-body physics, and their development as a candidate platform for scalable quantum computation.
He is widely known for his groundbreaking work on neutral atom arrays. Antoine’s innovative approach included an ensemble of individual atoms, each trapped in optical tweezers, arranged in arbitrary 2D geometries. This platform allows for the exploration of quantum many-body physics. His work is advancing the field of quantum science and holds great promise for the future.
Award | News Release
Announcing the 2026 Optica Fellows Class
The Board of Directors of Optica recently elected 121 members from 24 countries to the Society’s 2026 Fellow Class. Optica Fellows are selected based on several factors, including outstanding contributions to research, business, education, engineering, and service to Optica and our community.
“It is my pleasure to welcome the 2026 class of Optica Fellows,” said Jim Kafka, 2025 Optica President. “These members exemplify Optica’s core values through their innovative and impactful work, which is advancing the science of light. Congratulations, and thank you for your dedication to Optica and our field.”
Award | Honorary Members
Duncan T. Moore Named Honorary Member
Optica has named Duncan T. Moore an Optica Honorary Member, the most distinguished of all Optica Member categories. Moore is recognized for pioneering contributions to gradient-index optics, leadership in public policy, dedicated service to the optics community and distinguished roles in academia, government and professional societies. He is currently the Rudolf and Hilda Kingslake Emeritus Professor of Optical Engineering at The Institute of Optics, University of Rochester, USA.
“Duncan has been a leader in our field for over 50 years, inspiring future scientists and entrepreneurs, advancing optical design and engineering and helping shape public policy,” said Jim Kafka, 2025 Optica President. “In fact, Duncan was my first optics Professor, and I was part of his first group of undergraduate students at the University of Rochester. It is an honor to recognize such a dedicated and talented member of our community.”
Moore has experience in the academic, research, business and government areas of science and technology. He is an expert in gradient-index optics, computer-aided design and the manufacture of optical systems. He has been a committed member of Optica for over 50 years, serving in numerous roles, from editorial positions to program chair of Optica technical meetings, membership on the Technical Council, Annual Meeting Chair and Optica at-large Board of Directors Member. He served as society President in 1996 and was the principal motivator for Optica to become more involved in public policy issues. He continues to serve on Optica's Presidential Advisory Committee.
