Conference Updates

We just wrapped up the XX anniversary of the Nonimaging Optics conference at SPIE Optics + Photonics! It was a fantastic two days filled with inspiring talks by familiar and new faces. Thank you to everyone who made this happen, and to everyone who attended!

This year’s Best Student and Postdoc Presentation Award was a tie! Congratulations to both Wai Qian Tham from Trinity College Dublin, and Zijun Zhang from Zhejiang University for their excellent presentations!

We congratulate Ludo Haenen from Signify for the overall best submission to our Optical Design Competition, achieving an impressive efficiency of 53.3%, and Alex Lehmann from UNSW for the best submission among conference attendees, with an impressive efficiency of 31.4%!

We look forward to meeting you all again at the 2026 conference! Let’s build upon our optical momentum, continue to grow our etendue, and keep this field going strong to tackle new challenges in energy, illumination, and beyond!

The opening session of this year’s Nonimaging Optics Conference will be dedicated to the memory of Professor Roland Winston, who passed away in February this year at the age of 88. Roland founded the field of Nonimaging Optics, and his influence is felt by many of us both professionally and personally.

Do you have a personal memory of working with Roland, or a reflection on how his work impacted you? We invite you to share it as an email to us at [email protected], and we will include it into the session. There will also be an opportunity to share stories in person during the session.

We look forward to hearing your memories, and hope to see you in San Diego on Aug 4-5.

Professor Roland Winston with his research team.

Are you working hard to finish your design for the XX Challenge? We are happy to announce that we are giving you some final days to wrap up and test your design.

Happy designing, and may the best design guide you back to earth!

Extended Deadline: May 18th, 2025

We are very excited to introduce another of our invited speakers, Erin McDermott of Spire Starter!

Erin McDermott is an expert in nonimaging optics who began her career in optics and photonics 20 years ago. She is known for turning optical problems into robust, production-ready solutions across diverse industries. At Spire Starter, she consults on challenges in LED illumination, lens and reflector systems, light pipes, IR sensors, and light guides in consumer electronics, agriculture, aerospace, medical, automotive, and industrial sectors. Also known for her technical content on social media (@spirestarter on TikTok) and in tech magazines, Erin shares practical insights in layman’s terms that demystify the complexities of optical engineering and hardware development. She holds a B.S. in Applied Physics and concentration in Applied Optics from Kettering University.

Check out our exciting program and joins us in San Diego this August!

PS: Also remember to submit your attempt at this year’s design challenge by May 4th!

We are very excited to introduce another of our invited speakers for the 2025 conference, Dr. Norbert Danz!

Norbert Danz received a PhD in physics from Freidrich-Schiller University in Jena in 2003. Since that time he has been with the Fraunhofer-Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF. He is active in various fields related to the development and application of micro-optical systems. This includes active organic electronics materials and devices as well as micro-optical system engineering. The latter addresses pattern shaping and projection applications, miniaturized spectroscopy and microscopy, as well as biosensing, thereby covering the optical system design as well as element and system optical characterization and demonstration.

Are you planning to submit a design for our 2025 design competition? Remember that the deadline is coming up on May 4th 2025!