BELLINGHAM, Washington, USA — SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, welcomes 74 new Senior Members from 17 countries, across academia, government, and industry, in such photonics-specific areas as astronomical instrumentation, environment, defense, lithography, translational medicine, and energy.

The 13 new female Senior Members, representing 17.5 percent of the group, mark the highest percentage of female SPIE Senior Member promotions in the history of the Society. They include two industry executives, Energetiq Technology CEO Debbie Gustafson and Ball Aerospace's Vice President and General Manager of the Civil Space strategic business unit Makenzie Lystrup; the European Space Agency's Sarah Kendrew, an astronomer based at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore who currently sits on the SPIE Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee; and Gabriela Apiou, director of the Translational Research Core for the Wellman Center for Photomedicine who also has an integral role as part of the SPIE-Franz Hillenkamp Postdoctoral Fellowship team.

Other notable promotions include Saeed Al Mansoori, head of the Applications Development and Analysis Section (ADAS) at Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC) and the first SPIE Senior Member from United Arab Emirates; IBM Research Staff Member Martin Burkhardt; and Pavel Cheben, a principal research officer at the National Research Council of Canada.

"SPIE Senior Members are Members honored for their scientific excellence across the broad spectrum of optics and photonics research and applications, their active involvement with the optics community and SPIE, and significant performance that sets them apart from their peers," said the 2020 Senior Member Subcommittee Chair and Army Research Laboratory Essential Research Program Manager Dimitra Stratis-Cullum.

"This promotion honors those contributions not only across the international ecosystem, but also across the full spectrum of optics and photonics professionals in academia, industry, and government. It's so exciting this year to see so many wonderful women joining this outstanding group, and I'm looking forward to seeing the talent and accomplishments of next year's nominations."

The SPIE Senior Member recognition program began in 2008 as a way to recognize active members earlier in their careers and from a broader constituency. Nominations for the 2020 cohort of SPIE Senior Members will be accepted through 15 March 2021; nomination support materials will be accepted until 1 April 2021. For more information, and for a complete list of all SPIE Senior Members, please visit the SPIE website.

About SPIE

SPIE is the international society for optics and photonics, an educational not-for-profit organization founded in 1955 to advance light-based science, engineering, and technology. The Society serves more than 255,000 constituents from 183 countries, offering conferences and their published proceedings, continuing education, books, journals, and the SPIE Digital Library. In 2019, SPIE provided more than $5.6 million in community support including scholarships and awards, outreach and advocacy programs, travel grants, public policy, and educational resources. www.spie.org.