Given in the fields of optics, photonics.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: The International Society for Optics and Photonics, a US-based organization colloquially known as SPIE, has anointed three scientists of Indian origin with special recognition awards for 2014: Pramod Rastogi. Rajpal Sirohi, and Rajendra Singh.
Rastogi, a professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland, was given the organization’s Dennis Gabor Award, in recognition “of his groundbreaking research in the development of high resolution and multi-component parametric phase formulation methods for the simultaneous estimation of multiple phases and their derivatives from holographic interference patterns.” The research is in the field of diffractive wavefront technologies, which is what the Dennis Gabor Award specifically is meant to acknowledge.
“His commitment to science and technology in building bridges at the institutional and international levels is strongly reflected in the active role he played in laying groundwork for Switzerland’s collaboration with the Indian Institutions of science and technology,” SPIE said in a statement, “where he served as scientific advisor in part of the delegation accompanying the Swiss president in a visit to India in 2003.”
Sirohi was given the Chandra S. Vikram Award in Optical Metrology, which he earned for his “important contributions to applied optics and his many international activities to spread his knowledge.” A recipient of the Indian government’s Padma Shri commendation, Sirohi is currently the Bharat Ratna Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi Chair Professor at Tezpur University in Assam, India.
The Chandra S. Vikram Award in Optical Metrology is given for exceptional contributions to the field of optical metrology, according to SPIE. In a statement, SPIE Fellow Hans Tiziani of the University of Stuttgart, Germany said ““Sirohi’s research work in different areas of metrology and involvement in education together with his successful management career is highly recognized worldwide.”
Finally, Singh was awarded the SPIE Technology Achievement Award for “his efforts in the elucidation and exploitation of photonic effects in rapid thermal processing for semiconductor manufacturing, and his technical leadership of photovoltaic technology.” Singh is currently the D. Houser Banks Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Clemson University, in South Carolina.
Founded in 1955, SPIE a non-profit society that works to further research, development, and awareness of light-based technologies around the world. It is based in Bellingham, Washington, and also has an office in Cardiff, Wales.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com