Photonics Society of Chinese Heritage grants two Tingye Li Memorial Scholarship Awards
The Photonics Society of Chinese Heritage (PSC) revealed two winners of the third annual Tingye Li Memorial Scholarship Award. Mengyue Xu, a Ph.D. student from the Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU), and Hao Song, a Ph.D. student from the University of Southern California (USC), received 2022 honors in the program, which is named for Dr. Tingye Li, a pioneering researcher at Bell Labs and entrepreneur.
The Tingye Li Memorial Scholarship Award winners receive a trophy with an achievement citation and $1500 (a sum PSC says may vary from year to year). Recipients also receive special recognition during the PSC annual meeting.
Xu and Song were among 10 finalists for the award who were nominated by professors within major photonics-related academic programs at colleges and universities worldwide. Xu was nominated by Prof. Xinlun Cai for her work in thin-film lithium niobate electro-optic devices for coherent optical communication; Xu presented a paper based on this work at OFC 2022. Song was nominated by Prof. Alan Willner for his research in high-speed free-space optical communications using structured light; his work also was presented in San Diego last week. The two students received the awards after a review of all nominations by a committee of scientists and business leaders that included Prof. John Bowers (UCSB), Prof. Vincent Chan (MIT), Dr. Hong Hou (Intel), Prof. Guifang Li (UCF), Prof. Willner (USC), and Dr. Xiang Zhou.
Ten finalists nominated by invited professors in top photonics-related programs around the world were presented to the Scholarship Selection Committee and the winners were finally selected by the committee based on their scores of academic achievements and community services. The Scholarship Selection Committee is comprised of renowned scientists and business leaders in the field, including Prof. John Bowers (UCSB), Prof. Vincent Chan (MIT), Dr. Hong Hou (Intel), Prof. Guifang Li (UCF), Prof. Alan Willner (USC), and Dr. Xiang Zhou.
Other finalists for the award included:
- Yunhui Gao, Tsinghua University, nominated by Liangcai Cao
- Joel Guo, University of California at Santa Barbara, nominated by John Bowers
- Ming Jin, Peking University, nominated by Xingjun Wang
- Zhengxing Sun, Nanjing University, nominated by Xiangfei Chen
- Yuansheng Tao, Peking University, nominated by Xingjun Wang
- Li Wang, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, nominated by Ming Tang
- Zijiao Yang, University of Virginia, nominated by Xu Yi
- Yuanhang Zhang, University of Central Florida, nominated by Guifang Li.
“Tingye is an exemplary example of an outstanding scientist with exceptional capacity to make lasting impact not only to the photonics community, but also to young generations of scientists and engineers. He was a long-time supporter of PSC and we greatly appreciate his legacy,” commented Dr. Rang-Chen Yu, the president of PSC. “On behalf of PSC, I would like to congratulate the two outstanding graduate students winning the awards bearing Tingye’s name! I would also like to extend my congratulations to other outstanding young scholars who made to the finalist list.”
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Stephen Hardy | Editorial Director and Associate Publisher, Lightwave
Stephen Hardy is editorial director and associate publisher of Lightwave and Broadband Technology Report, part of the Lighting & Technology Group at Endeavor Business Media. Stephen is responsible for establishing and executing editorial strategy across the both brands’ websites, email newsletters, events, and other information products. He has covered the fiber-optics space for more than 20 years, and communications and technology for more than 35 years. During his tenure, Lightwave has received awards from Folio: and the American Society of Business Press Editors (ASBPE) for editorial excellence. Prior to joining Lightwave in 1997, Stephen worked for Telecommunications magazine and the Journal of Electronic Defense.
Stephen has moderated panels at numerous events, including the Optica Executive Forum, ECOC, and SCTE Cable-Tec Expo. He also is program director for the Lightwave Innovation Reviews and the Diamond Technology Reviews.
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