During the annual gala event, awards were given to the world's first cloud-based, deep-learning Raman spectrometer as well as to innovations in technologies such as automotive lidar systems, tunable lasers, and head-mounted display devices
MOMENT OF GLORY: The winners, judges, and presenters of the 2019 SPIE Prism Awards
BELLINGHAM, Washington, USA and CARDIFF, UK - On February 6, at the annual Prism Awards, an evening invitation-only event held during the Photonics West Symposium in San Francisco, SPIE and Photonics Media honored the best new optics and photonics products on the market.
At a ceremony where long-established companies such as Leica shared the winners' stage with disruptive startups like Double Helix - champion of the SPIE Startup Challenge in 2016 - all the winners and finalists at the 11th annual Prism Awards hold common ground: whether they are working in healthcare or security, transportation or scientific discovery, all the companies and products are dedicated to advancing technologies with optics and photonics.
With two new categories - Transportation and Vision Technologies - added to the award-lineup, the Prism Awards continue to reflect the exponential growth, exciting developments, and rich technical innovations across photonics and photonics-enabled industries. For consideration of this year's Prism Awards, SPIE received 120 applications from 15 countries. Finalists and winners were selected by a panel of international judges that includes leaders from both the technology commercialization and funding sectors.
Presenters of the Prism Awards, drawn from across the photonics industries, include President of MKS Instruments John Lee; Ball Aerospace VP & General Manager, Civil Space, Makenzie Lystrup; Coherent Vice President of Strategic Marketing Magnus Bengtsson; Morf3D Chief Technology Officer Melissa Orme; General Manager of Osram Opto Semiconductors' Sensor Line Markus Arzberger; Lumentum Vice President of Product Line Management Andre Wong; and Digilens Founder, Chairman & CTO Jonathan Waldern, among others.
"SPIE proudly recognizes and honors our Prism winners, finalists, and applicants," said SPIE CEO Kent Rochford. "Across various areas critical to our daily lives, these engineers and inventors are building, creating and innovating products that will improve fields such as healthcare, transportation, consumer safety, and scientific research. The mission of SPIE, to partner with researchers, educators, and industry to advance light-based research and technologies for the betterment of the human condition, finds one of its most concrete embodiments in this industry-focused event: I'm delighted to celebrate our Prism Awards for Photonic Innovation."
"In rising to the top of an impressive field of finalists, the 2019 award-winning products and the companies behind them are taking the photonics industry to new heights," said Thomas Laurin, president and CEO of Photonics Media and Laurin Publishing Inc. "Photonics Media is proud to stand with SPIE in supporting breakthroughs such as these, which continue to transform the photonics industry and the world."
Below, is the complete list of the award categories, the winners, and their winning products:
• Detectors & Sensors: CloudMinds, XI AI Raman Spectrometer
• Diagnostics & Therapeutics: Double Helix, SPINDLE
• Imaging & Cameras: Leica, BLK3D
• Industrial Lasers: nLIGHT, Corona Fiber Laser
• Light Sources: Smart Vision Lights, NanoDrive
• Optics & Optomechanics: Modular Photonics, Omplex Passive Silica Chips
• Scientific Lasers: TOPTICA Photonics, DLC TOPO
• Test & Measurement: 4D Technology, 4D InSpec XL
• Transportation: Blackmore, Automotive Doppler Lidar System
• Vision Technology: QD Laser, RETISSA Display
About SPIE
SPIE is the international society for optics and photonics, an educational not-for-profit organization founded in 1955 to advance light-based science, engineering, and technology. The Society serves 257,000 constituents from 173 countries, offering conferences and their published proceedings, continuing education, books, journals, and the SPIE Digital Library. In 2018, SPIE provided more than $4 million in community support including scholarships and awards, outreach and advocacy programs, travel grants, public policy, and educational resources. www.spie.org.
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