Edmund Optics® (EO) announced the recipients of its 2019 Educational Award program. This award is given in recognition of outstanding undergraduate and graduate optics research in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics programs at non-profit colleges and universities worldwide.

The EO Educational Award Team evaluated hundreds of applications to select 20 global finalists. $45,000 USD in EO products will be awarded to the Gold, Silver, and Bronze winners in the Americas and Europe to support their research. The remaining finalists will all receive a $500 product award. Additionally, the recipient of the Norman Edmund Inspiration Award, which best embodies the legacy of Edmund Optics’ founder Norman Edmund, is chosen from the 20 global finalists and will receive an additional $5,000 in EO products.

In the Americas, the Gold Award of $10,000 in EO products was awarded to Emily Bedell at the University of Colorado Boulder, USA, for their design of an in-situ fluorimeter for the real-time detection of microbial risk levels in drinking water sources in low-income areas.

The Silver Award of $7,500 in EO products was awarded to Travis Sawyer at the University of Arizona, USA for the development of a novel endoscope for early detection of esophageal cancer.

The Bronze Award of $5,000 in EO products was awarded to Guanjun Tan of the University of Central Florida, USA, for the resolution of several remaining optical challenges in head-mounted display systems, including virtual reality and optical see-through augmented reality.

In Europe, the Gold Award of €7,000 in EO products was awarded to Jan Sperrhake of Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Institute of Applied Physics, Germany, for the development of a multipurpose, contactless medical sensor device for observing the vital signs of newborns.

The Silver Award of €5,000 in EO products was awarded to Andreas Riedo of the University of Bern, Switzerland, for the development of a robust and sensitive detector for the reliable in-situ detection of signatures of life on extraterrestrial bodies within the solar system.

The Bronze Award of €3,000 in EO products was awarded to Alejandro Madrid Sánchez of Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Belgium, for the development of a novel 3D printing solution for wound dressings that reduces printing time by producing tailored voxels, which can enable large-scale 3D structures to be implemented in biomedical applications.

The Norman Edmund Inspiration Award was awarded to Cobey McGinnis at University of North Carolina Charlotte for developing a single-pixel hyperspectral imaging camera that can identify malignant tissue and can allow for real-time margin assessment by surgeons. The American Cancer Society estimates that more than 1.7 million people will be diagnosed with cancer in 2019 and that over 600,000 people will die from the disease. Surgery remains the primary treatment for solid mass tumors with the objective being to remove malignant tissue while minimizing damage to adjacent healthy tissue. This project demonstrates an impactful, applicable research opportunity in the field of optics that could lead to more positive outcomes for cancer patients who require surgery.

For more information, visit www.edmundoptics.com/award.