ANZOS and SPIE are honoured to announce the inaugural Jim Piper ECR/ MCR Entrepreneurial Researcher Prize which recognises an outstanding early career researcher for an early-stage entrepreneurial activity/ start-up in the field of optics, lasers, or photonics. The prize is named in honour of Professor Jim Piper, a distinguished and entrepreneurial laser physics researcher, and sponsored by SPIE.

Jim was very active in the Australian optics community, serving on the founding committee of the Australian Optical Society (now ANZOS), its President in 1984-1985, appointed a lifelong member of ANZOS in 2016, and was an OSA (now Optica) Fellow. He brought the International Quantum Electronics Conference to Australia for the first time in 1996. As President of Science and Technology Australia (2015-2017) he restructured the organisation’s membership to be more inclusive.

Jim was the Director of the Australian Research Council (ARC) Special Research Centre for Lasers and Applications (1988-1996) and subsequently Chief Investigator for two ARC Centres of Excellence (Centre for Ultra-high-bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems and Centre for Nanoscale Bio-Photonics).  A world-class researcher, Jim authored over 400 journal articles and hundreds of conference papers, and his research continued to flourish during his retirement.

Jim’s passion for research contributed to building the ARC policy for funding of large-scale research infrastructure and industry collaborations.  He was involved in several laser start-ups, and an inventor on more than 20 patents. His award in 2006 of a Carnegie Lectureship and an honorary D.Sc. from Heriot-Watt University in Scotland also recognised his research excellence in lasers and laser applications.

We will be taking applications for this prize alongside the 2024 ANZOS Awards, which are currently open. More details on the Jim Piper ECR/ MCR Entrepreneurial Researcher prize are included below and available on the prize page of our website.