People's Choice Award
IYL photo contest features 32 finalists.
Everyone is invited to vote for one of 32 images in the SPIE International Year of Light Photo Contest.
The photo with the most votes will receive the People’s Choice Award, which comes with a $500 prize.
View the images online and vote for the photo you think most represents light and light-based technologies in daily life. Online voting will be conducted 15 April to 15 August.
The UN proclaimed 2015 the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies (IYL2015) to raise global awareness about how light and light-based technologies support sustainable development and provide solutions to global challenges in energy, education, health, industry, agriculture, communications, and our environment.
SPIE Professional magazine organized the photo contest to raise awareness of light and light-based technologies in daily life during IYL2015. SPIE is providing prizes of US $2,500 for the first-place photo; $1,000 for second place; and $500 each for third place and the People's Choice Award.
SPIE Professional is also featuring the winning photos on the covers of each quarterly issue of the magazine in 2015.
Out of more than 800 photos submitted to the SPIE International Year of Light Photo Contest in 2014, contest judges selected 35 images as finalists for prizes.
A panel of 40 graduate students in art and science programs did the initial screening, rating each photo on artistry, how well it depicted the contest theme of light and light-based technologies in daily life, and other criteria.
An executive panel then selected the top three photos, leaving 32 eligible for the People's Choice Award.
The executive panel included SPIE member Joe Niemela of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Italy, which is serving as the global secretariat for IYL2015; award-winning American photographer Mathieu Young; and Deborah Klochko, director of the Museum of Photographic Arts in California.
Paul Reiffer is the first-place winner in the contest. The second-place winner is Susanta Mukherjee, and Ian Bell won the third-place prize.
SPIE will announce the winner of the People’s Choice Award in September.
The 32 images in the People's Choice competition and information about the light and light-based technologies they represent can be viewed on SPIE.org.
The official voting page also shows the images. Click the "Vote Now" button to go directly to the official voting page and cast your vote. All voters have one vote. Those who provide a valid e-mail address will be entered in a drawing for a GoPro camera.
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