University of Arkansas Students Honored at SPIE Conference

U of A students Greg Forcherio (first row, second from left), Jeremy Dunklin (back row, fourth from right)

U of A students Avery Hill (front row, far left), Stephen Bauman (front row, second from left)

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Five students from the University of Arkansas were honored at the annual Optics Plus Photonics conference, one of the two largest meetings organized by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics.

Stephen Bauman, Jonathan Mishler and Avery Hill received Newport Research Excellence Travel Awards, which enabled them to present their research at the conference, held Aug. 17-21 in San Diego.

Bauman is entering his second year in the U of A’s microelectronics-photonics graduate program and Mishler is a senior honors student with a double major in physics and mathematical sciences. Their research adviser is Joseph Herzog, visiting assistant professor of physics. Hill is a junior honors student with a double major in physics and mechanical engineering. His research co-advisers are Herzog and Paul Millett, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering.

Jeremy Dunklin, a graduate student in chemical engineering, and Gregory Forcherio, a graduate student in microelectronics-photonics, received 2014 SPIE travel scholarships. Their research adviser is D. Keith Roper, associate professor chemical engineering and holder of the Charles W. Oxford Endowed Professorship in Emerging Technologies.

The five students have established a University of Arkansas student chapter of SPIE and plan to hold their first meeting this fall.

SPIE, founded in 1955 as the Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers, is an international professional society that advances emerging light-based technologies through interdisciplinary information exchange, continuing education, publications, career development, and advocacy.