SPIE Donation Helps Establish Endowed Scholarships

Fourteen new endowed scholarships will provide an investment in the future of optical sciences and photonics, realized through graduate students and their studies.

SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, and 13 other organizations and individuals have each donated at least $100,000 to enable newly created or existing endowments through the Friends of Tucson Optics (FoTO) program at the University of Arizona’s College of Optical Sciences (OSC).

The graduate student scholarships will benefit from a 4-to-1 matching gift offer made by James Wyant, professor emeritus and founding director of OSC. Wyant, whose $10 million donation established the FoTO program, is a former president of SPIE and is well known throughout the optics industry.

With the matching program, donations of $100,000 meet the minimum $500,000 required for the endowment. The payout provides in perpetuity graduate student stipend support at about $20,000 annually, and the scholarships will also include graduate student tuition and fees donated by the university.

The FoTO scholarships are vital to continued contributions to leading research in new R&D partnerships, said Thomas Koch, dean of OSC.

“SPIE is very much in support of education and we see this as an investment in the future of optics and photonics,” said SPIE CEO Eugene Arthurs.

Along with SPIE, the 13 FoTO scholarships include:

Professor Michel Cagnet Graduate Student Scholarship in Optical Sciences
Robert M. Edmund Graduate Student Scholarship in Optical Sciences
Joseph W. Goodman Graduate Student Scholarship in Optical Sciences
John B. Hayes and Jane C. Quale Graduate Student Scholarships in Optical Sciences 1 & 2
Lawrence A. Johnson Graduate Student Scholarship in Optical Sciences
Kenneth E. and Michele L. Moore Graduate Student Scholarships in Optical Sciences 1 & 2
Jacobus M. and Michelle L. Oschmann Scholarship in Business Management and Optical Sciences
Roland V. Shack Graduate Student Scholarship in Optical Sciences
Richard L. Shoemaker Graduate Student Scholarship in Optical Sciences
John Tipton Graduate Student Scholarship in Optical Sciences
William L. Wolfe Family Graduate Student Scholarship in Optical Sciences

In addition, OSC has three existing FoTO scholarships, established with a lead gift of $25,000 from college alumnus Elroy Miller. Donations of any amount to this general fund will also be matched 4 to 1 from Wyant’s offer.

Willis Lamb Jr. Graduate Student Scholarships in Optical Sciences 1 & 2
Louise Wyant Memorial Graduate Student Scholarship in Optical Sciences

For more information, visit: www.spie.org