The Jean Bennett Memorial Student Travel grant was established in 2008. Jean Bennett was a highly decorated research physicist known for her contributions to the studies of optical surfaces and served as our first female president. In her honor, two grants of USD 1,000 are awarded to a student members presenting their work at Optica's annual meeting Frontiers in Optics (FiO+LS) in recognition of their research excellence.

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

• Apply at the time of paper submission
• Be the presenter of a paper or poster accepted at FiO.
• Be a current member.
• Be an undergraduate or graduate student of an educational institution of collegiate grade who is devoting more than half-time to studies within the institution at the time the paper was written.

Application Requirements

• CV/Resume (no more than three pages)
• Personal Statement (250 words or less)
• Accepted Paper and Abstract
• One letter of support from head of group leader, department of lab lead or PI

Past Recipients

• Fatemehsadat Tabatabaei, University of Virginia, United States (2024)
• Rabeeya Hamid, University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States (2024)
• Yishu Zhou, Yale University, USA (2023)
• Yuzhu Li, UCLA, USA (2023)
• Drew Morrill, University of Colorado, USA (2022)
• Nasrin Razmjooei, University of Texas at Arlington, USA (2022)
• 2021 - Due to Covid-19 the travel grant was approved to cover costs for 15 student presenter FiO registration for the virtual meeting.
• 2020 - Due to Covid-19 the travel grant was approved to cover costs for 20 student presenter FiO registration for the virtual meeting.
• Peter Schnauber, TU Berlin, Germany (2019)
• Muhammed Veli, University of California Los Angeles, USA (2018) 
• Aonan Zhang, Nanjing University, China (2017) 
• Roxana Rezvani Naraghi, University of Central Florida, USA (2016)  
• Zi Jing Wong, University of Callifornia, Berkeley, USA (2015) 
• Christopher Edwards, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA  (2014) 
• Laszlo Gyongyosi, Budapest University of Technology, Hungary  (2013) 
• Emma Wisniewski-Barker, University of Glasgow, UK  (2012) 
• Micha Nixon, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel  (2011) 
• Tongcang Li,University of Texas at Austin, USA  (2010) 

Contributors

This competition is made possible through the generous support of Nanoptek Corporation, the Pennsylvania State University Department of Physics and individual contributors, including: James C. Wyant, Alexander A. Sawchuk, G. Michael and Ruth Morris, Aden B. Meinel, Julio R. Blanco, Yoshiharu Namba, Leo Hollberg, Siu Au Lee and Dr. Kathleen Richardson.

Selection Committee

The recipient is selected by the FiO+LS conference and program chairs.