Student Paper Competition

This year's Congress will have various student prizes. 

ASSL Best Student Oral Presenter Prize

ASSL General Chairs select finalists based on the content quality and review scores of student papers sessioned for oral presentations. After the papers are presented at the meeting, the Program Committee will select winners based on content quality, value to the technical community of interest and the student's presentation skills. Please note there are two sets of finalists (and winners) based on the two topical categories: Materials and Sources. 

The prize will include a monetary prize of €500 (winner), €300 (second place) and €200 (third place). This prize program is possible due to the generous support from Trumpf and Yokogawa Electric Corp.  

Congratulations to the finalists!

Materials

Ole Hahn, Leibniz-Institut für Kristallzüchtung, Germany 
Tuesday, 13 October 2026, 09:00 – 09:15
Power Scaling of Blue 495 nm Pr3+:BaY2F8 Lasers

Lisa Lallemand Effilux, Laboratoire Charles Fabry, France
Wednesday, 14 October 2026, 14:30 – 14:45
LED-pumped Nd:glass Master Oscillator Power Amplifier

Jan Pokorný, Denki Tsushin Daigaku, IPE Czech Academy of Sciences, Czechia
Wednesday, 14 October 2026, 14:00 – 14:15
The Impact of Pair Induced Quenching on Performance of Ho-doped Silica Fibers

Sources

Faik Derya Ince, Photonics and Ultrafast Laser Science, Ruhr Universität
Tuesday, 13 October 2026, 18:15 – 18:30
SESAM-modelocked Ho,Y:CaF2 Laser at 2.1 µm

Christoper Pasquale, University of Michigan, USA
Tuesday, 13 October 2026, 11:45-12:00
100mJ-class Spatially and Temporally Coherently Combined Femtosecond Fiber Laser System

Yingjie Zhao, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, Universite du Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Monday, 12 October 2026, 17:00 – 17:15
A portable laser system for single shot coherent Rayleigh-Brillouin scattering

Optica Student Recognition Prize

The papers submitted to the competition were reviewed during the standard Technical Program Committee (TPC) review process, which resulted in up to 20 finalists (up to 4 from each topical) being selected. After the papers are presented at the meeting, the Program Committee members will select winners based on content quality, value to the technical community of interest and the student's presentation skills. 

Emerging Economy Prize Paper Winners

Individuals from emerging economies can opt in during the submission process of any Optica meeting to be considered for special recognition of their presentation. Honorees will be featured on the meetings website and in an upcoming issue of the OPN Journal.  Highly scored presenters from emerging economies will be selected for recognition.