Tomasz Tkaczyk of Rice University has won the 2012 Norman Edmund Inspiration Award for his low-cost, portable optical systems for global health applications, the optical components maker announced Wednesday. Bioengineering assistant professor Tkaczyk will receive $5000 in Edmund Optics products, in addition to the $10,000 in goods he received from the company last month as a first-place winner in its 2012 Higher Education Grant Program (See: Biomedical Researchers Win Edmund Optics Grants). His work involves advancing miniature microscope objectives and endomicroscopy systems for in vivo detection of cancer and infectious diseases, and his designs are currently being used worldwide to combat and treat tuberculosis and malaria. The award was created to honor the contributions made by the late Norman Edmund to advance the science of optics. Tkaczyk was chosen from the three 2012 Higher Education Grant Program first-place award recipients in the Americas, Europe and Asia. “The research done by Dr. Tkaczyk and his associates at Rice University embodies Norman Edmund’s spirit of innovation,” said board member Joan Husted, Edmund’s daughter. “My father would be proud to know that EO’s optics were used in the development of a technology which both advances the field of medical diagnosis and reduces its cost.” Tkaczyk is a postdoctoral fellow in applied optics and in biomedical imaging from the University of Arizona; has a PhD in optical engineering and physical optics from the Institute of Micromechanics and Photonics at Warsaw University of Technology in Poland; and an MS in optical engineering from Warsaw University of Technology. For more information, visit: www.edmundoptics.com/grant