POF 2009  Awards and Prizes

UNSW Pak Chu Student Prize

 

The Inaugural Pak Chu Student Prize, named in memory of Professor Pak Chu, was awarded to David Wu (The University of Sydney) for the best student presentation, oral or poster.
	David Wu presented in the Illumination Session. His topic was Emission spectra of gas plasma discharge in polymer capillaries.   Pictured at left: David Wu with Mrs Pak Chu

We were delighted to welcome Mrs Chu and her son Desmond to the award ceremony, and thank them for their attendance and continued interest in the research area.

Because of the high standard of entries, further prizes were awarded.   Jessienta Anthony (The University of Auckland) Characterizations of THz microstructured fibers with specially design lenses presented in the THz tansmission and materials session

Anna Wang (The University of Sydney) Side-Hole Fibre Sensor based on Surface Plasmon Resonance presented in Sensors, Devices and Components - I
Jeff Lee (University of Technology Eindhoven) Real-Time Gigabit DMT Transmission for Plastic Optical Fiber Communications presented in Datacom networks and FTTX - I

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The Pak Chu Student prize was sponsored by the University of NSW and included a cash component of $500 and a copy of the POF Handbook, kindly donated by POFAC.

Pak organised the POF conference in 2005 in Hong Kong, which was magnificent, and greatly enjoyed by everyone. He will always be remembered with tremendous affection within the POF community for his kindness, generosity and gentleness. He is greatly missed, not just as a colleague, but as a friend.

Professor Pak Lim Chu

The world of photonics lost a great champion and a pioneer of fibre optics in Australia with the passing of Professor Pak Lim Chu, who died on March 15, 2008, after a year's battle with cancer. An OSA Fellow since 1992, Pak was a leading international photonics research scientist.

Pak was a traditional academic, fascinated by pure research. From 1973 and for more than 30 years, he worked on guided wave photonics at UNSW culminating in his Headship of the Optical Communications Group (OCG). His research group was active in both theory and experiment. Later interests included the non-linear phenomenon of solitons, polymer fibres, fibres doped with rare-earth elements, multi-core fibres, planar waveguides and devices, sensing and particularly the fibre hydrophone, and other diverse fibre applications. He also developed the first undergraduate course in Australia in optical communications technology.

Pak worked collaboratively with government and industry organizations, which led to such developments as a practical twin-core fibre coarse wavelength de-multiplexer, and the plasma-based technology used in planar waveguide fabrication.

In 1976 Pak organised the first Workshop on Optical Fibres, held at UNSW, which brought together researchers in fibre optics from academic, government and industrial organizations. As a result, a long-running series of Australian Conferences on Optical Fibre Technology (ACOFT) began. Pak was also heavily involved in the international series of conferences on polymer optical fibres - the POF conferences.

Pak was a popular speaker and the author of almost 500 conference and journal papers. He was a Fellow of several scientific societies including the Australian Technological Society and the Optical Society of America. In 2001 he was awarded the Centenary Medal of Australia for his contribution to optical communications.

Précised from the original article by Professor John Love, Australian National University, on the Optical Society of America website

Poly Optics Art Prize

Our thanks to Mr Eddy Joseph and Poly Optics, for generous sponsorship of the Inaugural POF Art Prize, with a cash prize of $1000. Our thanks also to our officia lPowerhouse Judge and the panel of judges for their expertise and interest in this innovative part of the program.

The prize was jointly awarded to Anna Wang and Xin Zhang (both from The University of Sydney) for their entry: Sculpture (PMMA and wood)

There was a most creative installation of entries ranging from marketable product (who can forget the POF specific-use Brush?) to poster/picture and sculpture. Thank you to all entrants and to Eddy and PolyOptics for the prize.

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Guidelines:

1. The general statement is that the artwork should use or be about the uses of Polymer Optical Fibers
2. Entries should be brought to the venue in person for display during the Art Prize social event (late afternoon drinks and nibbles session). Entries will be displayed at Dockside for this time only, and must be removed at the end of drinks.
3. All costs including transport to and from the venue and insurance are at the behest of the entrant.
   
4. Installation and removal of the entry is the responsibility of the entrant and must comply with the Venue’s access policy and requirements.
5. Size Restriction: The entry should be able to be carried by one person, and be able to be displayed by attachment with velcro to a standard
   posterboard or be displayed on a small tabletop (0.75m x 0.75m)
6. Performance art is also eligible, but please discuss early with the organisers in order to arrange time and space requirements
7. Entry for the Prize is open to all - those attending the conference and the general public.
8. The conference organisers reserve the right to reject an entry prior to display if it is deemed inappropriate for any reason. Such a decision by the organisers will be final.
9. Judging:
   There will be a panel of judges, headed by a professional artistic judge.
   The panel reserves to the right to reject inappropriate entries
   The award will be made at a Social function at the conference.

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Poly Optics Australia Pty Ltd

Poly Optics manufactures innovative and energy efficient fibre optic and LED lighting solutions. Poly Optics developed Super Side Light Fibre Optic Cable, a world first in energy efficient lighting. The product is a breakthrough in lighting technology providing a flexible, heat-free and energy efficient solid core fibre optic cable designed to be illuminated with LEDs.

In 2007, Poly Optics was awarded the Environmental Protection Agency’s Innovation in Sustainable Technologies Award for its world ‘first’ energy-efficient fibre optic lighting system.

Poly Optics was the proud recipient of the Dupont Innovation Award in 2006 - for the second time! - for its world-first fluorescent and neon replacement system, using high powered LED’s in combination with a unique patented super side light fibre optic cable.

The 2004 Dupont Award for Innovation in Australia was awarded to Poly Optics for their Flexible Optic Light System.

Products are showcased on the Poly Optics' website.