Edmund Optics® Announces 2015 Educational Award Finalists

Edmund Optics® (EO), the premier provider of optical components to both industry and academia, announced today the finalists for its 2015 Educational Award. This year Edmund Optics received over 850 applications from around the world and will be awarding Edmund Optics products valued at over $80,000.

Forty-five global finalists representing 23 countries will vie for the Gold, Silver, and Bronze awards. The final Educational Award recipients will be announced on October 14, 2015. Each region - the Americas, Europe, and Asia - will be granted a Gold ($10,000 in products); a Silver ($7,500 in products); and a Bronze ($5,000 in products) Award. Edmund Optics will also present 36 matching product awards in the amount of $500 each to 12 recipients in each of the three regions. To cap off their support to these cutting-edge university research programs, the company will announce nine global student winners selected to receive prizes such as tablets, digital cameras, and activity trackers.

Additionally, all finalists will be eligible for the Norman Edmund Inspiration Award - an additional $5,000 USD in products being announced on November 11, 2015, to the program that best embodies the legacy of Edmund Optics' founder, Norman Edmund, for inspiring others to become interested in science and engineering.

"This has been our most competitive year yet with applications focusing on the environment, energy and life sciences. We are in awe over the innovative solutions submitted to address some very critical challenges facing our world," remarked Kirsten Bjork-Jones, Director of Global Marketing Communications. "It is so rewarding to know that we can provide the tools and support to help inspire this level of optical innovation. This is what Edmund Optics is all about."

The 45 research finalists and their teams, submitted applications ranging from creating a vision system for the early detection of forest fires and the advancement of optical techniques to investigate alternative energy sources to discovering new non-invasive methods for pneumothorax diagnosis in premature babies and the development of a smartphone spectrometer for real-time environmental monitoring or health diagnostics such as Ebola detection.

The difficult task of selecting the winning award recipients from so many worthy finalists lies ahead for Edmund Optics' global award team. The team will select three award recipients, in each region, based on two criteria: (1) technical merit, which is the application of optics in the program, and (2) the innovative use of optics in a lab or research setting.

Check back on October 14, 2015 to meet our 2015 Educational Award recipients. In the meantime, to meet the finalists, please visit www.edmundoptics.com/award.