Ocean Optics Announces 2011 Video and Photo Contest Winners

After several months of competition, Ocean Optics (USA) has chosen the winners of its 2011 global video and photo contest. The Grand Prize in the video category was awarded to John Giddings, for his entry Telelumen at Mt. Fuji Summit, GOT IT!. In the photo category, Field Plot of Dreams, submitted by Mina Talajoor, took the Grand Prize.

To create the winning video, Giddings made an arduous two-day trek to the summit of Japan’s Mt. Fuji. Using two Ocean Optics’ USB4000 spectrometers he captured spectral data of the light at the top of the summit from dawn to dusk over three days. The short video captures Giddings’ first impressions of the “Spiritual Light” of the Mt. Fuji sunrise -the fabled sunrise which earned Japan the moniker “The Land of the Rising Sun.”

Axel Emmermann (a repeat Runner-Up winner from 2010), was awarded the First Runner-Up video prize for Jaz - The Versatile One, demonstrating how to customize the slit size on Ocean Optics’ Jaz spectrometer. Winner of the Runner-Up prize, Bill Hughes, enlisted the help of his students at Park Forest Middle School to create The Archaic Technology Blues, illustrating the need for Ocean Optics’ equipment to engage his tech-savvy students.

The Grand Prize photo, Field Plot of Dreams, from Mina Talajoor and researchers Duke Pauli and Jay Kalous, documents a project aimed at combating world hunger. Using the Jaz spectrometer, the group is measuring light reflected off the canopies of wheat and barley to identify plants with the most advantageous characteristics for breeding.