Spectra-Physics Research Excellence Travel Awards were presented this year at the SPIE conference in Newport.  SPIE Student Services hosted the Student Lunch with the Experts, to give students a chance to network and gain advice from industry and academic leaders. The Newport and Spectra-Physics Research Excellence Travel Awards presentations were made during the lunch. Randy Heyler, senior director of Strategic Marketing for Newport, (second from right, in front of podium) presented $15,000 in travel awards to student researchers at a luncheon at SPIE Photonics West

Students who attended to accept the awards were as follows: Taeyoung Choi, University of Arizona; Eric Diebold, Harvard University; Juejun Hu, MIT; Toufic Jabbour, University of Central Florida; Chih-wen “Wendy” Kan, University of Texas at Austin; Matthew Lew, Calif.l Institute of Tech; Yutin Lin, UCalif, Irvine; Suprahja Murali, Univ. of Central Florida; Jaesook Park, University of Texas at Austin; Leo Siiman, U. Central Florida; Mingzhen Tang, U NC at Charlotte; Nitin Uppal, U Texas, Arlington; Hongying Zhu, U Missouri, Columbia; Narasimhan Rajaram, U Texas, Austin. Also winning an award, but not pictured: Tina Shih, Harvard Univ.

SPIE President Kevin Harding and representatives from Newport are also in the photo with the award winners.