Sedat Nizamoglu, Natalie Vermeulen and Photonics21 Vice President Giorgio Anania (from left to right)
Natalie
Vermeulen and Sedat Nizamoglu are the two winners of the Second Photonics21
Student Innovation Award. Giorgio Anania, Photonics21 Vice president and member
of the Photonics21 Executive Board, awarded them the prize at the opening
ceremony of the Photonics Europe
Conference in Brussels on the 12 April 2010. Anania each handed them over a
cheque of 2500 Euros, an official certificate and a trophy. The Photonics21
Student Innovation Award 2010 is sponsored by Thales,
SPIE Europe and the European project Accord.
SPIE Europe also gave the two winners a complimentary ticket for the Photonics Europe
Conference.
Vermeulen holds a degree of Electrotechnical
Engineer with majors in photonics and the title of Doctor in Engineering with
greatest distinction and works as a post doctoral research at the Department
of Applied Physics and Photonics at the Vrije Universiteit Brussels. Her outstanding research work is entitled “Silicon Raman devices with enhanced
efficiency and reduced heat dissipation” and covers the area of
silicon-on-insulator-based lasers, amplifiers and wavelength converters, the
working mechanism which relies on a light-matter interaction called Raman
scattering. Silicon-on-insulator based Raman devices may have a considerable
impact in the optical information and communication technology and could also
support industrial applications by operating at mid-infrared wavelengths.
Vermeulen is the author of 9 peer reviewed publications, 15 conference
proceedings and 1 patent, and was invited as speaker at 4 international
conferences.
Nizamoglu
works as a research assistant at the Department of Electrical and
Electronics Engineering at the Bilkent University in Ankara.
His research entitled “White light Generation Using CdSe/ZnS
Core-Shell Nanocrystals Hybridized with InGaN/GaN Light Emitting
Diodes” concentrates on the development
and demonstration of a new class of white light emitting diodes integrated with
nanophosphors of semiconductor nanocrystal quantum dots for efficient
high-quality lighting. They have a high potential for use in future
high-quality solid-state lighting and displays. Nizamoglu has published 25
Science Scitation Index journal articles, 45 further articles, and 2 patents
pending.
The
award committee has been set up by nine European photonic experts who are
members of the seven Photonics21 work groups and who are elected for a term of
three years which started in 2009. Roberta Ramponi, Photonics21 chair of work
group 7, steers the committee as chair. The other members of the committee are:
Dimitra Simeonidou, University
of Essex, as representative of WG 1
Andreas Friedel, TRUMPF Laser
Marketing Systems AG, as representative of WG2
Boris Vedlin, CEO Optotek
medical, as representative of WG 3
Anna Cavallini, University of
Bologna, as representative of WG 4
Santiago Olaizola, CEIT - IK4
Research Alliance, as representative of WG 5
Francois Flory, Ecole Centrale
Marseille, as representative of WG 6.
Lluis Torner, ICFO, as
representative of WG 7
Malgorzata Kujawinska, Warsaw
University of Technology, as representative of the Photonics21 Executive Board.
The
award recognizes industrial-related R&D diploma and master thesis in applied
optics and photonics to support training and education in photonics throughout
Europe, to foster a closer cooperation between industry and academia and to
increase public relation activities for photonics education.
The
next Photonics21 Student Innovation Award will be handed over in 2011. Further
information about the Photonics21 Student Innovation Award can be found
here.
