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Teddi C. Laurin Scholarship Established to Promote Industry Leadership

A scholarship has been named in honor of Teddi C. Laurin, founder of Laurin publishing Company. Co-funded by Photonics Media and SPIE, the $5000 scholarship was created to raise awareness of optics and photonics, and to foster growth and success in the photonics industry by supporting students involved in the field. To be considered, applicants must be in their second year of an optics/photonics program, with preference given to those working on industry-leading photonics research projects.

Teddi C. Laurin
Teddi C. Laurin, founder of Laurin Publishing Co.

"Teddi had a long-standing desire to see the photonics industry expand and gain worldwide recognition," said Tom Laurin, president and CEO of Laurin Publishing. "The scholarship that bears her name is a fitting tribute to the time and effort she invested in making that happen."

Teddi C. Laurin, who passed away in November 2015, entered the worlds of optics and publishing in the early 1960s, working alongside former Eastman Kodak physicist Dr. Clifton M. Tuttle on a one-volume annual optical industry directory. When Dr. Tuttle retired, Teddi took over management of the Optical Industry Directory, expanding it over the years into a four-volume compendium that included the Photonics Handbook and Photonics Dictionary.

In 1967, responding to a need she saw for a trade magazine to serve the optical industry, Teddi established Optical Spectra to publish relevant business and technical news. In 1982, she changed the magazine's name to Photonics Spectra, declaring in an editorial that "in the coming decades, we will see photons — the elementary particles of light — put to work to do most of the things electrons do now — and do it better and faster."

Teddi's devotion to that mission was widely recognized in the industry. In 1991, she received the SPIE President's Award in recognition of her "distinguished leadership and service in support of the optics industry and optical engineering." She was instrumental in the development of the Circle of Excellence Awards — given annually by vote of Photonics Spectra's Board of Editorial Advisors to the 25 most innovative new products of the previous year — the spirit of which is alive in the Prism Awards for Photonics Innovation, presented annually by SPIE and Laurin Publishing Co./Photonics Media.

The Teddi C. Laurin Scholarship will be granted annually.



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