Changchun Institute of Optics,Fine Mechanies and Physics,Chinese Academy of Sciences

2020 Rising Stars of Light Final Winners

Author: GUO Chenzi |

The 2020 Rising Stars of Light Final Campaign, initiated by the journal Light: Science & Applications, was live hosted on iCANX talks on 23rd and 30th Oct.

With the assistance of visual reality, the committee members and final candidates were able to “sit” in a “room” together. After two sessions totaling eight hours of online campaign with half a million global audiences, the Committee members - Prof. Aydogan Ozcan from UCLA, Prof. CAO Jianlin from Ministry of Science and Technology of China, Prof. Chennupati Jagadish from The Australian National University, Prof. Andrea Alu from The City University of New York and Prof. QIU Min from Westlake University – selected Dr. Giulia Tagliabue from EPFL as the first prize, Dr. Amit Agrawal from NIST and Dr. SUO Shuo from UC Boulder as the second prize winners, Dr. Avik Dutt, Dr. Justus Ndukaife, Dr. LIU Junqiu as the third prize winners, and Dr. SUN Shulin from Fudan University, Dr. YANG Yi from MIT, Dr. YANG Sui from UC Berkeley, Ph.D. candidate HU Guangwei from National University of Singapore as candidates awards winners.

Rising Stars of Light, initiated by the journal LSA, is a worldwide campaign to find the most brilliant young scientists in optics-related topics. Since 2018, it has been hosted for three times and received worldwide recognition. This year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, LSA decided to move it online and co-organize it with the internationally renowned online visual reality platform for academic talks, iCANX.

Between 15th Aug 2020 and 15th Sept 2020, Rising Stars of Light were open to nominated applicants from world’s leading young scientists who can only be qualified until they submit their achievements, publications & patents, future research plans and being nominated by a World’s leading scientist in optics.

Within the one-month nomination period, 35 qualified nominations from US, China, Singapore, Australia, Switzerland, Germany, UK and Denmark were received. After a two week selection period, 10 final candidates, from MIT, Stanford University, UC Berkeley, EPFL, National University of Singapore, NIST, Fudan University, University of Colorado, Boulder and Vanderbilt University, were selected who each gave a 20-min speech on iCANX.

Here is a full list of the award winners:

· First prize winner: Dr. Giulia Tagliabue from EPFL will win USD 3000 (before tax)

· Second prize winners: Dr. Amit Agrawal from NIST and Dr. Shuo Sun from UC Boulder will each win USD 1500 (before tax)

· Third prize winners: Dr. Avik Dutt, Dr. Justus Ndukaife and Dr. Junqiu Liu will each win USD 1000 (before tax)

· Candidates awards: Dr. SUN Shulin from Fudan University, Dr. Yang Yi from MIT, Dr. YANG Sui from UC Berkeley and ph.D. candidate HU Guangwei from National University of Singapore.

All awards winners will each also receive a chance for a free publication in the journal LSA (valid until 2022).

Congratulations to the abovementioned young scientists! We expect their future researches will bring fundamental changes to the optics community and contribute to the wellbeing of the human race.

Acknowledgements to strong support from:

1. 2020 Rising Stars of Light Committee: Prof. Aydogan Ozcan from UCLA, Prof. CAO Jianlin from Ministry of Science and Technology of China, Prof. Chennupati Jagadish from The Australian National University, Prof. Andrea Alu from The City University of New York and Prof. QIU Min from Westlake University

2. All the nominators and applicants of 2020 Rising Stars of Light

3. Hosts: Alice Zhang, professor from Peking University, Mikhail Kats, associate professor from University of Wisconsin, Madison and Renmin Ma, assistant professor from Peking University

4. Initiators: Co-Founder and Deputy Editor in Chief of Light: Science & Applications, Prof. BAI Yuhong, Light: Science & Applications’ Editors Assoc. Prof. GUO Chenzi, Prof. CHANG Wei, Assoc. Prof. ZHANG Guang, ZHAO Yang, volunteer WANG Ze (Ph.D. candidate from Purdue University), and all the staff members who have been supporting 2020 Rising Stars of Light.