Prestigious Honor: Professor Stefan Sinzinger named Fellow of the European Optical Society

The appointment as an EOS Fellow is a special honor for me - not only as recognition of my personal work, but also as an appreciation of the great achievements of my team and our partners at TU Ilmenau. Together we will continue to make innovative contributions to optics and photonics and inspire young scientists for these future technologies

explained Prof. Sinzinger on the occasion of his ceremonial appointment as EOS Fellow at EOSAM 2025. With around 450 participants from more than 30 countries, the annual meeting of the European Optical Society is one of the most important international forums for optics and photonics.

As one of Europe's leading experts in optical system integration and micro-optics, Prof. Sinzinger can look back on a scientific career spanning over thirty years. Whether algorithms for the precise calculation of holograms that enable three-dimensional projections in medicine, displays and measuring systems, high-precision connections of light paths in computers or sensor systems - so-called optical interconnects - that allow faster and more efficient data transmission, or cameras that capture light in many wavelengths simultaneously in order to detect diseases at an early stage or to analyze materials: During his many years of scientific activity, Prof. Sinzinger has driven forward significant innovations in light guidance and processing, according to the EOS's reasons for appointing the Ilmenau scientist as a Fellow. These include, for example, systems that shape and distribute light in a targeted manner, for example to examine cells under a microscope or produce tiny chips, as well as free-form micro-optics and so-called optical tweezers (tweezer systems): miniaturized light tools that can grip, manipulate and measure individual cells or particles.

"Optics is fun"

Stefan Sinzinger began his scientific career as a doctoral student at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. This led him via research stays at the NEC Research Institute in Princeton, USA, and the FernUniversität Hagen to the TU Ilmenau in 2002. Since then, the physicist and his team at the Optical Engineering Group have raised more than 20 million euros in third-party funding for research projects and co-founded two companies in the field of optical design and production.

Together with Jürgen Jahns, he also wrote the standard work "Microoptics" and is the author of over 130 specialist articles, more than 10 book chapters and over 300 conference papers. In 2011, the optics and photonics expert received the Edmund Optics Research and Innovation Award (2011) for the development of innovative laser tweezers based on a compact plastic rod. The Ilmenau scientist's current research interests include light sheet fluorescence microscopy, tunable and achromatized micro-optics, dynamic wavefront synthesis and holographic measurement technology.

In addition to his research at TU Ilmenau, Prof. Stefan Sinzinger has also been committed to the optics community and young scientists in Germany and Europe for decades. Among other things, he was President and Chairman of the German Society for Applied Optics (DGaO) for many years. He also regularly inspires people of all ages with the fascination of light - whether at the TU Ilmenau's children's university, the Ilmenau Science Night or when children and young people visit the optics laboratory. "Optics is fun," said the scientist - true to the motto of his teacher Adolf Lohmann - on the occasion of his award in Delft, "especially in a strong and inspiring international community like the EOS with its German member society, the DGaO."