Zhaokai Meng, a graduate student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Texas A&M University, has been awarded a 2014 Optics and Photonics Education Scholarship by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics.
Meng, who is working as a research assistant in the Advanced Spectroscopy Lab directed by Professor Vladislav V. Yakovlev, was honored for his potential contributions to the field of optics, photonics or related field.
Meng specializes in nonlinear optics microspectroscopy and the corresponding applications in biomedical engineering and sciences. His research interests include microscopic imaging for molecular, cellular and tissue structures, and extending these techniques into biomedical studies.
In 2014 SPIE awarded $353,000 in education and travel scholarships to 144 outstanding individuals, based on their potential contribution to optics and photonics, or a related discipline. Award-winning applicants were evaluated, selected and approved by the SPIE Scholarship Committee, chaired by SPIE volunteer Kevin Leonard.
To date, SPIE has distributed more than $3.5 million dollars in individual scholarships. SPIE scholarships are open to full- and part-time students studying anywhere in the world. All scholarship applications are judged on their own merit, based on the experience and education level of the individual student.
SPIE is the international society for optics and photonics, a not-for-profit organization founded in 1955 to advance light-based technologies. The society serves nearly 256,000 constituents from approximately 155 countries, offering conferences, continuing education, books, journals and a digital library in support of interdisciplinary information exchange, professional networking, and patent precedent. SPIE provided $3.2 million in support of education and outreach programs in 2013.