Meredith Kupinski has received the NSF CAREER Award for her proposal, "Towards Real-Time Polarimetric Synthesis from Probabilistic Representations." This award is one of the most prestigious honors for pre-tenure faculty, recognizing those who can be academic role models and lead advancements in their field. Prof. Kupinski has since been promoted to Associate Professor of Optical Sciences with tenure. Kupinski said, “all students in this research group: former, current, and future will benefit from this award. Thank you to my colleagues and mentors for bringing out the best in me.”

The month of May is Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) Heritage Month! Over the last few weeks on social media, the Wyant College of Optical Sciences has celebrated a few of the many scientists and engineers who have made significant contributions to our world. Take a moment to learn more about them.

The Quantum Toolbox project at the University of Arizona's Wyant College of Optical Sciences is an exciting new initiative recently funded through a $25,000 grant from the UArizona Foundation Small Grants Committee. Made possible by the efforts of Dalziel Wilson, Associate Professor of Optical Sciences, and Kaye Rowan, Executive Director of Development, the project creates an independent study course with official enrollment slated for fall 2025. This will be the university's first hands-on quantum course, providing vital experiential learning opportunities for students passionate about quantum science and the growing availability of innovative careers in the quantum field. 

A special congratulations to the authors of the paper "Ultra-high-Q free-space coupling to microtoroid resonators" as April's top downloaded paper among all papers published by Light: Science & Applications, a Nature sub-journal with impact factor 19.5, in March 2024. First author of the paper is Sartanee Suebka, PhD Student under the advisement of Judy Su, Associate Professor of Optical Sciences, who is the senior author on the paper. Euan McLeod, Associate Professor of Optical Sciences, is also a co-author on the paper.

Two students advised by Prof. Ron Driggers were selected for Awards at the SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing 2024 Conference in April 2024. Jordan Rubis, PhD Student, was selected for the SPIE Infrared Imaging Systems 2024 Young Researcher Innovation Award. Luke Somerville, PhD Student, was selected for the SPIE 2024 Infrared Imaging Systems Best Presentation. 

Three Wyant College of Optical Sciences PhD students, all advised by Travis Sawyer, Assistant Professor of Optical Sciences, have had their research featured on prominent journals' covers. Justina Bonaventura's article was published in the May 2024 issue of SPIE's peer-reviewed Journal of Biomedical Optics. Noelle Daigle's and Shuyuan Guan's work was featured in the May/June 2024 issue of BioPhotonics, a news journal published by Photonics Spectra. 

Wyant College of Optical Sciences alumnus, Lee Giles (MS 1977 and PhD 1981), was ranked 183 globally and 111 in the U.S. in the Research.com 2023 Ranking of Best Scientists in Computer Science. Today Dr. Giles is the David Reese Professor of Information Sciences and Technology at Pennsylvania State University, College of Information Sciences and Technology. This prestigious recognition highlights his significant contributions to information retrieval, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, with 626 publications and 49,292 citations. Congratulations to Dr. Giles on this outstanding achievement!

Congratulations to Chuan Luo, PhD student, for receiving a $4,000 scholarship from SPIE for 2024. This recognition, part of SPIE’s $303,000 distribution to 72 exceptional student members this year, highlights Chuan's outstanding potential in optics and photonics. Chuan is advised by Yuzuru Takashima, Professor of Optical Sciences.