UNC Charlotte’s gift from SPIE featured in Business Wire
UNC Charlotte received a $500,000 gift from SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics. The gift was announced during the SPIE Photonics West conference held in San Francisco, California and has been featured in Business Wire.
The gift is fully matched by a $500,000 contribution from the UNC Charlotte Foundation to form the SPIE Emerging Innovators in Optical Science and Engineering Scholarship.
The endowment will support scholarships for two students pursuing doctoral work in UNC Charlotte’s Optical Science and Engineering program, which focuses on rapidly growing fields such as photonics, optical metrology, advanced optical materials, freeform optics and biomedical optics. This endowed fund is the first of its kind for the Klein College of Science program.
“This endowment is a powerful catalyst for our growing Klein College of Science. Supporting additional doctoral students fuels the talent that will drive advances across nanophotonics, precision metrology, biomedical imaging and quantum technologies,” said Bernadette Donovan-Merkert, founding dean of the Klein College of Science. “The investment from SPIE strengthens our momentum, expands our capacity and energizes our entire Optical Science and Engineering program. We are thrilled for what this investment sets in motion.”
The news was also covered by Electro Optics, the Associated Press and more.