February 20, 2019 | Eli Freund - School of Engineering

Javidi Wins 2019 C.E.K. Mees Medal from The Optical Society

The UConn School of Engineering is pleased to announce that Dr. Bahram Javidi, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been awarded the prestigious C.E.K. Mees Medal from The Optical Society (OSA), which he will accept in June  2019.

Siddharth Rawat, left, a Ph.D. student, and Bahram Javidi, distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering, operate a prototype device to examine blood samples for diseases at the Information Technologies Engineering Building (ITE) on Sept. 28, 2017. (Peter Morenus/UConn Photo)

Siddharth Rawat, left, a Ph.D. student, and Bahram Javidi, distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering, operate a prototype device to examine blood samples for diseases at the Information Technologies Engineering Building (ITE) on Sept. 28, 2017. (Peter Morenus/UConn Photo)

The UConn School of Engineering is pleased to announce that Dr. Bahram Javidi, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been awarded the prestigious C.E.K. Mees Medal from The Optical Society (OSA), which he will accept in June  2019.

According to OSA, the medal was established in 1961 to honor OSA charter member C. E. K. Mees, who contributed preeminently to the development of scientific photography. The Mees family endowed the medal to recognize achievements that exemplifies the thought that “optics transcends all boundaries,” and recognizes an original use of optics across multiple fields.

Javidi was specifically chosen for this award “for pioneering multidisciplinary contributions to information-optics with diverse applications in bio-photonics, 3D imaging and displays, photon-counting imaging and cyber-physical security,” according to the award citation.

This award is the second accolade for Javidi from OSA in the past 12 months (he was also the recipient of the Joseph Fraunhofer Award / Robert M. Burley Prize in 2018), and is one of a long line of accomplishments during his career, which include: Being named one of the top 160 engineers between the ages of 30-45 by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) to attend the Frontiers of Engineering; the Quantum Electronics and Optics Prize for Applied Aspects by the European Physical Society (EPS); the Dennis Gabor Award in Diffractive Wave Technologies from The International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE); the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship; the Alexander von Humboldt Prize for senior US Scientists in all disciplines; the SPIE Technology Achievement Award; the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award; and the George Washington University Distinguished Alumni Scholar Award.

At UConn, he has received the American Association for University Professors (AAUP) Research Excellence Award; the University of Connecticut Board Of Trustees Distinguished Professor Award; the UConn Alumni Association Excellence in Research Award; and the Chancellor’s Research Excellence Award, among others.

He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), Fellow of the Optical Society (OSA), Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), Fellow of the European Optical Society (EOS), Fellow of The International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE), Fellow of the Institute of Physics (IoP), and Fellow of The Society for Imaging Science and Technology (IS&T). Javidi has over 1000 publications which have been cited 42000 times, according to Google Scholar, and 19 patents, some of which have been licensed by industry.

Javidi is also the director of the MOSIS Lab (Multidimensional Optical Sensing and Imaging Systems), which is focused on advancing the science and technology of imaging, by centering on the fields of optics, photonics, and computational algorithms and systems, from nano to macro scales. MOSIS works with, and finds solutions for, partners in the defense, manufacturing, healthcare, and cybersecurity industries.

Click here to learn more about the C.E.K. Mees Medal from The Optical Society.