Established in 2007, The Corning Outstanding Student Paper Competition recognizes innovation, research excellence and presentation abilities in optical communications. To be eligible for consideration, students must submit a paper to OFC and opt-in to the competition during the submissions process. Those with accepted papers meeting our score requirement will be asked to apply to participate in the competition at the meeting.

Six finalists are selected to present their paper to the OFC Chairs virtually or in a private in-person session. One first-prize recipient receives a USD $3,500 stipend.

Application Information

How To Apply

Submit a paper to OFC and opt into the competition. Learn more on the conference website.

Important Dates

The submitting author must opt-in to the competition during the regular paper submission process and follow all of the instructions provided on the submission site.
Paper Submission Deadline: 22 October 2025

Applicant Requirements

• Must be an undergraduate or graduate student.
• Must have a paper submitted and accepted during the regular call for papers process for OFC. (Note: Postdeadline Papers are not part of this competition).
• Must present the accepted paper orally during the conference.

Application Requirements

Opt-in to the competition during the regular submissions process and follow all of the instructions provided on the website.

2024 Recipient

Manuel Kohli
ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Manuel was recognized for his presentation “256 GBd Barium-Titanate-on-SiN Mach-Zehnder Modulator”

Past Recipients

• Leonard Budd, University of Southampton, UK (2023)
• Weihan Xu, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China (2022)
• Xiaosheng Zhang, University of California, Berkeley (2021)
• Mengfan Fu, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China (2020)
• Taichiro Fukui, The Univeristy of Tokyo, Japan (2020)
• Justin Lavrencik, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA (2020)
• Ryota Tanomura, University of Tokyo, Japan (2019)
• Duanni Huang, University of California, Santa Barbara, U.S.A. (Honorable mention, 2019)
• Xuwei Xue, TU/e, Netherlands (Honorable mention, 2019) 
• Christoph Füllner, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany (2018)
• Weiyang Mo, University of Arizona, USA (Honorable Mention, 2018)
• Ivan Fernandez de Jauregui Ruiz, Telecom SudParis, France (Honorable Mention, 2018)
• Zhe Li, University College London, UK (2017)
• Zeinab Sanjabi Eznaveh, University of Central Florida, USA (Honorable Mention, 2017)
• Michael Theurer, Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute, Germany (Honorable Mention, 2017)
• Zahoora Sanjabieznaveh, University of Central Florida, USA (2016)
• Jing Wang, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA (Honorable Mention, 2016)
• Stefan Wolf, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany (Honorable Mention, 2016)
• Andrea Sgambelluri, Scuola Superiore Sant Anna di Pisa, Italy (2015)
• Binbin Guan, University of California Davis, USA (Honorable Mention, 2015)
• Stefano Grillanda, Politecnico di Milano, Italy (Honorable Mention, 2015)
• Johannes von Lindeiner, University of Cambridge , UK (2014) 
• Samuel Olsson, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden  (Honorable Mention, 2014)
• Shohei Beppu, Tohoku University, Japan (Honorable Mention, 2014)
• Robert Palmer, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany (2013)
• Siddharth Jain, The University of California, Santa Barbara, USA  (Honorable Mention, 2013)
• Abhinav Rohit, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands (Honorable Mention, 2013)
• Eric Rodrigue Numkam Fokoua, University of Southampton, UK (2012)
• An Li, The University of Melbourne, Australia (Honorable Mention, 2012)
• Nicole Lindenmann, Karlsruhe Institut of Technology, Germany (Honorable Mention, 2012)
• Liang Du, Monash University, Australia (2011)
• Neil Guerrero Gonzalez, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark  (Honorable Mention, 2011)
• Jose Manuel Delgado Mendinueta, University College of London, UK (Honorable Mention, 2011)
• David Hillerkuss, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany (2010)
• Jonas Geyer, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany (Honorable Mention, 2010)
• David Sinefeld, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel (Honorable Mention, 2010)
• Jeffrey Lee, University of Technology, Eindhoven, Netherlands (2009)
• Mohammad Alfiad, University of Technology, Eindhoven, Netherlands  (Honorable Mention, 2009)
• Bo Zhang, University of Southern California, USA (Honorable Mention, 2009)
• Frederik Van Laere, University IMEC, Belgium (2008)
• Mohammad Alfiad, University of Technology, Eindhoven, Netherlands (Honorable Mention, 2008)
• Matthew Dummer, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA (Honorable Mention, 2008)

Contributors

About the Endowment

Since 2007, Corning Inc. has supported the student paper competition and recognizing outstanding research at OFC.

Selection Committee

The recipient is selected by the OFC conference chairs.