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Li Innovation Prize (CLEO)

Foundation

Li Innovation Prize (CLEO)

Recognizing the top early career members innovative ideas at CLEO.

Program Prize

USD 3,000

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The Tingye Li Innovation Prize is presented to an early-career professional who has demonstrated innovative ideas in their accepted paper to CLEO, the premier conference for lasers and electo-optics.


Application Information

How To Apply

Submit a paper to CLEO and opt into the competition. Learn more on the conference website.

Important Dates

The submitting author must opt-in to the competition during the regular paper submission process and follow all of the instructions provided on the submission site.
Paper Submission Deadline: 07 April 2024

Applicant Requirements
  • Have an accepted paper to CLEO or a Post Deadline Paper (PDP) and must have "opted in" during the submission process
  • Be a current early career member who has received a terminal degree within the last five years or will receive a terminal degree by the application deadline.
  • Be responsible for, and exhibit innovative ideas in, their research
  • Agree to let the Optica Foundation use their picture, name and story in program marketing opportunities.
Application Requirements

The submitting author must opt-in to the competition during the regular paper submission process.

If you have questions, please contact apply@optica.org.


2024 Recipient

Nicholas Rivera
Nicholas Rivera
Harvard University, USA

Recognized for his paper "An ab initio framework for understanding and controlling quantum fluctuations in complex light-matter systems" at CLEO 2024.


Past Recipients

2023 WINNER
Chen Shang
University of California Santa Barbara, USA

for scalable on-chip lasers grown on 300 mm Si wafers

2022 WINNER
Armin Feist
MPI for Multidisciplinary Sciences, Germany

for electron-photon correlations induced at a photonic integrated
microresonator

2021 WINNER
Yating Wan
University of California Santa Barbara, USA

for her work on 1.3 µm regrown quantum-dot distributed feedback lasers on (001) Si: a pathway to scale towards 1 Tbit/s

2020 WINNER
Julia Gessner
National Institute of Standards & Technology, USA

for her work on Ultrafast Charge and Spin Dynamics in Ferromagnets

2019 WINNER
Shai Tsesses
Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Israel

for his work on Optical skyrmions: a new topological state of light.

2018 WINNER
Logan G. Wright
Cornell University, USA

for his work on Spatiotemporal Mode-Locking.

2017 WINNER
Yoshitomo Okawachi
Columbia University, USA
2016 WINNER
Marcus Seidel
Max-Planck-Institute of Quantum Optics, Germany

for his work on the development of Watt-class femtosecond sources at mid-IR wavelengths beyond the oxygen absorption edge around 5 µm

2015 WINNER
Antonietta De Sio
Universitat Oldenburg, Germany

for her work on 50x50 Digital Silicon Photonic Switches with MEMS-Actuated Adiabatic Couple


Contributors

This honor is endowed by Alliance Fiber Optic Products, Inc., AT&T, Optica, the IEEE Photonics Society, the IEEE Communications Society, Thorlabs, Inc., the Li family and supporters of the Tingye Li Memorial Fund.


About the Endowment

Established in 2013, the Li Innovation Prize honors the global impact Tingye Li made to laser science and optical fiber communications.


Selection Committee

The recipient is selected by the CLEO conference chairs.

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