Light Shines on Photonics Scholarship Recipient

January 22, 2009

Fourth-year engineering physics and society student Erik Sorensen is on his way to San Jose to learn more about photonics and to collect a $1,000 scholarship.

SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, will be presenting Erik with an Educational Scholarship in Optical Science and Engineering award at Photonics West on January 25 in San Jose, California.

Currently on a 16-month internship at Wescam, Erik has a strong interest in biophotonics and is pursuing a minor in philosophy.  He is planning to pursue a master’s or Ph.D. in the photonics field.

A key criterion for awarding the SPIE scholarship is that the student has the prospect for long-term contribution that the granting of an award will make to the field of optics and optical engineering.

SPIE is the world’s largest international not-for-profit society in the fields of optics, photonics, and imaging with 17,000 individual members including 3,800 students.  To date, SPIE has distributed over $3 million (US) in scholarships and grants to those working and learning in 84 countries.