BARRINGTON, NJ - Edmund Optics announced the recipient of the 2013 Norman Edmund Inspiration Award of $5,000 in product donation. Craig Mackay, Professor of Image Science in the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge in the UK, and his research team are building a new instrument for ground-based optical telescopes that will produce higher resolution images than those captured from space telescopes.

This new instrument will deliver much higher angular resolution using 5-10 meter class telescopes to deliver diffraction limited imaging in the visible. Using the Lucky Imaging technique, the sharpest images are selected and made even sharper by using a new lower-order curvature wavefront sensor. This works by using an optical assembly that allows simultaneous imaging of near-pupil images on either side of a pupil to reconstruct the wavefront and drive the deformable mirror to deliver the corrections. Mackay and his team have already achieved images about 3 times the angular resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope. Their goal is to develop the instrument so that it may be put on the largest telescope in the world - the 10.5 meter GTC on the Canary Islands.

"Professor Mackay's project is a significant evolution in the field of adaptive optics and will help to lower the costs of high resolution imagery considerably by not having to launch equipment into space," remarked Marisa Edmund, VP of Marketing and Communications. " Mackay's research epitomizes what my grandfather, Norman Edmund, loved the most - furthering the exploration of science."

The Norman Edmund Inspiration Award honors the contributions made by Norman Edmund to advance the science of optics. The recipient of the award is chosen from the first-, second-, and third-place prize recipients in the Americas, Europe, and Asia, who best embodies the legacy of Edmund. Mackay is the first-place recipient of €7,000 in EO products in 2013 Higher Education Global Grant Program.