This year’s Best Master’s Thesis Award in Optics at the University of Eastern Finland was presented to Duc Huynh, Elvis Pillinen and Miika Suhonen.
The award is funded by a donation from Huawei Technologies (Finland). The award is presented in recognition of a notable Master’s thesis in the field of photonics, one that has made significant use of, or a significant contribution to, photonics. The award amounts to 2,000 euros, and a total of three awards are presented each year.
Photonics/optics is defined as a field of science and technology encompassing the physical phenomena and technologies associated with the generation, transmission, manipulation, detection, and utilisation of light. It covers the electromagnetic spectrum from ultraviolet (UV) light through visible light to infrared (IR) light.
Duc Huynh’s Master’s thesis focuses on the development of a novel method for the detection of luminescence signals emitted by cells. The study opens avenues for the detection, monitoring and calculation of individual molecules, which is a very important topic in the field of biosensing.
Elvis Pillinen’s Master’s thesis examines the spectral modulation of ultra-short (femto-second) light pulses in a fully and partly coherent case. The results of the work have several applications for controlling the shape and polarisation state of the light pulse and for examining the geometric phase, enabling flexible control of the light field.
Miika Suhonen’s Master’s thesis deals with quantitative photoacoustic tomography, which, in terms of photonics, is based on the illumination of the imaging object with a short-term (pico- or nano-second) light pulse. Applications exist especially in the field of medical imaging.
“The photonics industry and photonics-related research are experiencing strong growth both in Finland and elsewhere in the world. Each of these Master’s theses was given the highest possible grade, 5/5, and the award winners can look forward to plenty of exciting career opportunities,” Professor Jyrki Saarinen says.
For further information, please contact:
Professor Jyrki Saarinen, Chair of Master’s Thesis Award Committee, jyrki.saarinen@uef.fi, tel. +358 50 595 4348
