Established in 2011 with the Canadian Association of Physicists Foundation (CAPF), this program pays tribute to Boris P. Stoicheff, an internationally renowned laser spectroscopist and former President of the OSA (1976) and CAP (1983-84).

This scholarship is awarded to a graduate student who has demonstrated both research excellence and significant service the society or the physics community. The scholarship rotates annually between the Optica Foundation (odd years) and CAP Foundation (even years).

Application Information

How To Apply

Submit a paper to FiO+LS 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: 21 May 2024

Applicant Requirements

• Have an accepted paper at FiO or CAP conference.
• Be an Optica Student Member.
• Be a full-time graduate student studying astronomy, chemistry, electrical engineering, medical physics, or an optics, photonics, or physics related subject.
• Demonstrate community service, which may include but is not limited to: leadership in a student association or other student organization or as a volunteer with Optica or CAPF.

Application Requirements

• Short answer questions
  • In 250 words or less, describe how you first became interested in optics/photonics/physics
  • In 250 words or less, describe your community service activities.
• CV/resume
• GPA certification (unofficial transcript)
• One reference letter

2023 Recipient

Lin Lin
Washington University in St. Louis, USA

Past Recipients

• Lin Lin, Washington University in St. Louis, USA (2023)
• Kate Fenwick, University of Ottawa / NRC, Canada (2022)
• Murat Yessenov, CREOL, University of Central Florida, USA (2021)
• Matthew Robbins, University of Waterloo (2020)
• An Pan, Xi'an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics, China (2019)
• Robin Puchert, Universität Regensburg, Germany (2018)
• Aimee K. Gunther, University of Waterloo (2018)
• Ali Kazemi Jahromi, University of Central Florida, USA (2017)
• Christopher Pugh, University of Waterloo, Canada (2016)
• Itai Epstein, Tel-Aviv University, Israel (2015)
• Juan Nicolas Quesada, University of Toronto, Canada (2014)
• Yanhui Zhao, Penn State University, USA (2013)
• Wilson Brenna, University of Waterloo, Canada (2012)

Selection Committee

When administered by Optica,the recipient is selected by the FiO+LS conference chairs.