Six Women Among the 75 New Fellows of SPIE

The Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers was founded in 1955. Over the years there have been several changes in the name of the organization to reflect the changing technological landscape. The organization is now known as SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics.

Each year the society elects 75 new fellows who have made significant scientific and technical contributions to the fields of optics, photonics, and imaging. Of this year’s 75 new fellows, only six are women. Three of the six women honorees teach at American universities.

(L to R) Julie Bentley, Sandra Biedron, Laura Marcu, Xiaoyi Bao, Helen Jelinkova, and Angela Seddon

Julie Bentley is an associate professor of optical design and engineering at the University of Rochester. She holds bachelor’s and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Rochester and joined the faculty there in 1998. Previously she worked for Hughes Aircraft and Corning. Dr. Bentley was honored for “developing new courses in lens design from the undergraduate to graduate level with real-world student projects.”

Sandra Biedron is an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Colorado State University. She was honored for “achievements in detection systems and sensors and nonlinear harmonic emission in high-gain harmonic generation free-electron lasers.” Dr. Biedron is a graduate of Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, Illinois. She earned a Ph.D. in accelerator physics at Lund University in Sweden.

Laura Marcu is a professor of biomedical engineering at the University of California at Davis. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the University of Southern California. She was elected as a fellow for “achievements in biomedical optics, fluorescence lifetime spectroscopy, and imaging.”

The three other women honored by election as fellows of SPIE are Xiaoyi Bao of the University of Ottawa in Canada, Helen Jelinkova of the Czech Technical University in Prague, and Angela Seddon of the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom.