Photonics Frontiers Award 2025 - The Shortlist Series #1

May 21 2025

Wed, 21st May - 3pm BST

In association with

Join us for an exclusive look at the shortlisted entries for this year’s Photonics Frontiers Award 2025.

In this exclusive webcast - the first in a series of three - we take a look at the entrants and their applications who have made it to the ‘semi-finals’ of this showcase of the most innovative projects that use photonics to solve problems across the most popular industry sectors.

Where The Photonics100 celebrates people, The Photonics Frontiers Award celebrates the application of photonics.

Now that our independent judges have made their decision, we hear from the shortlisted applications in the fields of biophotonics, healthcare and laser technologies.

FULL SHORTLIST:

Simultaneous Eye-safe Spectroscopy and Fundus Imaging Technology for Point-of-Care Detection of Traumatic Brain Injury – ‘EyeTBI'

Villuminator: Uniform Illumination for Enhanced Microscopy Imaging

Laser Ultrasound for Carotid Imaging and Diagnosis (LUCID)

Beam Shaping for Enhancing Electric Vehicle Welding Applications

Compact High-Energy Laser For Space Rocket Engine Ignition

Laser Quality Control for Sustainable Electronics Manufacturing

Discover the entries which made the cut

A compact high-energy laser for space rocket engine ignition

Simultaneous eye-safe spectroscopy

Hear about these innovative applications, and others, ahead of the overall winner being announced at this year’s Laser World of Photonics.

Moderating the webcast will be Europa Science CEO Warren Clark, and joining the applicants will also be a speaker from biotech innovator Lumencor.

Speakers

	Warren Clark CEO, Europa Science Warren Clark is CEO of Europa Science, with more than 30 years’ experience in connecting science and technology communities through online platforms and publications. Initially on the content team, including some years as editor of Electro Optics, Warren moved onto publisher and executive roles, taking over as CEO in 2016.
	Dmitry Tabakaev Senior Scientist, Silicon Austria Labs GmbH Dmitry Tabakaev did his bachelor and Master studies in Photonics at the Tomsk State University, Russia (2010-2016) where he dealt with development of solid state dye lasers. He did his PhD and Postdoc at the Applied Physics Department of the University of Geneva, Switzerland (2017-2023) where he pioneered two-photon absorption topics in quantum nonlinear optics and developed single- and two-photon detection and generation schemes for the novel applications in medicine, life sciences and semiconductors. In 2023 he joined Silicon Austria Labs, an Austrian applied and industrial research institute where he is co-leading the high-energy laser development team as a Senior Scientist.
	Alex Griffiths Lead Engineer, PowerPhotonic Ltd. Alex Griffiths received a PhD in physics in 2018. As Lead Engineer in the Product Development team at PowerPhotonic, he works on the design, optimisation and application of freeform beam shaping optics for industrial laser systems.
	Mariia Zhuldybina CEO, TRAQC
	Ronian Siew Optical System Consultant, VBMB (Venture Biotech Modules Business) Ronian is an optical system consultant at Venture and at VBMB. He is the primary inventor of the patent-pending Villuminator™, which refers to compact LED-based optical systems that produce extremely uniform "top hat" illumination profiles for a variety of bio-imaging and industrial applications, such as light microscopy and patterned projection.
	Pola Goldberg Oppenheimer Professor in Microengineering and Bionanotechnology Pola Goldberg Oppenheimer is a Professor in Micro-Engineering and Bio-Nanotechnology at the University of Birmingham’s School of Chemical Engineering and Healthcare Technologies Institute. She leads the Advanced Nano-Materials & Surface Architectures (ANMSA) Group, collaborating with clinical teams at Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Birmingham Enterprise. Her research focuses on micro-engineering and hybrid nanomaterials for miniaturized photonic devices for healthcare.
Featured in top journals, BBC News and radio, her work has earned funding from the Royal Academy of Engineering, EPSRC, EU Consolidator Grant, and Wellcome Trust. Professor Oppenheimer has published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, Science Advances, and Advanced Materials, and received the Carl-Zeiss Award. She has presented at major conferences, authored a book, and contributed to science policy as an envoy to the House of Commons Science & Technology Committee and a member of the Parliamentary Engineering Group at the House of Lords.